Pereda, José María de
Pereda, José María de
(hōsā` märē`ä dā pārā`thä), 1833–1906, Spanish novelist. His stories are laid chiefly in his native Santander. An aristocrat by birth, he wrote sympathetically of the peasants but satirically of the bourgeoisie. His colorful descriptions of local landscape are preeminent in his Escenas montañesas [mountain scenes] (1864), a collection of stories and episodes, and El sabor de la tierruca [the taste of the earth] (1881). Sotileza (1884) and Peñas arriba (1894), among his best-known novels, are vivid regional works.Pereda, José María De
Born Feb. 6, 1833, in Polanco, near Santander; died Mar. 1, 1906, in Santander. Spanish writer.
Pereda’s first works were sketches and stories in the costumbrismo manner, published in such collections as Escenas montañesas (Mountain Scenes, 1864), Tipos y paisajes (Types and Landscapes, 1871), and Esbozos y rasguños (Outlines and Sketches, 1881). These early works sympathetically portrayed the life of simple people. The novels El buey suelto (The Free Bull, 1878), Don Gonzalo Gonzálezdela Gonzalera (1878), De tal palo tal astilla (Like Father, Like Son, 1880), and La Montálvez (1888) critically depicted Spanish life from a religious and conservative viewpoint. In the novels El sabor de la tierruca (The Savor of Country Life, 1882) and Sotileza (1884), Pereda described patriarchal mores and the life of fishermen and mountaineers, re-creating their speech and portraying their environment.
WORKS
Obras completas, vols. 1–18. Madrid, 1942–43.Obras completas, 7th ed., vols. 1–2. Madrid, 1959.
In Russian translation:
“Otplytie.” Vestnik inostrannoi literatury, July, 1907.
Gerb i moshna. In Ispanskie povesti i rasskazy. Moscow, 1958.
REFERENCES
Shepelevich, L. [Iu.] “Khoze de-Pereda: Ocherk iz istorii sovremennoi ispanskoi literatury.” Vestnik Evropy, 1905, book 11.Cossío, J. M. de. La obra literaria de Pereda: Su historia, su crítica. Santander, 1934.
Gullón, R. Vida de Pereda. Madrid, 1944.
A. L. SHTEIN