Valle-Inclán, Ramón Maria Del

Born Oct. 28, 1869, in Puebla de Caramiñal, Galicia; died there Jan. 5, 1936. Spanish writer and dramatist.

Valle-Inclán’s first literary work, which was published in 1894, was a collection of short stories entitled Women: Six Love Stories. He was a representative of the so-called Generation of 1898. The Sonata cycle of novellas (four parts, 1902-05; translated into Russian in 1966) is united by a single theme and protagonist; these novellas ring with protest against the drabness of petit-bourgeois life. Valle-Inclán also published the trilogy Barbaric Comedies (1907-08) and The Carlist War (1908-09). The plays he wrote before World War I (La Marquesa Rosalinda, 1913, and others) contain a succession of grotesque characters. Valle-Inclán condemned World War I. His postwar plays, pamphlets, and novels reflect the growth of critical attitudes among progressive members of the Spanish intelligentsia and the influence of Russia’s October Revolution. In several grotesque novellas under the general title Shrove Tuesday (1924-26), Valle-Inclán used the dialogue form to criticize the prevailing moral climate. In the pamphlet-novel Banderas the Tyrant (1926; Russian translation 1931 and 1959), he painted a generalized satirical portrait of a dictator; the historical novels Court of Miracles (1927; Russian translation, 1936) and Long Live My Ruler (1928) are satirical portrayals of Spain on the eve of the Revolution of 1868. An opponent of fascism, Valle-Inclán led the Spanish section of an international writers’ movement active in the defense of culture. In 1933 he was elected president of the Spanish Society of Friends of the USSR.