Azorín
Azorín,
pseudonym of José Martínez Ruiz (b. June
8/11, 1873, Monóvar, Spain—d. March 2,
1967, Madrid), novelist, essayist, and
the foremost Spanish literary critic of
his day. He was one of a group of
writers who were engaged at the turn of
the 20th century in a concerted attempt
to revitalize Spanish life and letters.
Azorín was the first to identify this
group as the Generation of ’98—a name
that prevails.
Azorín
studied law at Valencia, Granada, and
Salamanca, but later he went to Madrid
to be a journalist, only to find that
his outspokenness closed most doors. He
then wrote a trilogy of novels, La
voluntad (1902; “Volition”), Antonio
Azorín (1903), and Las confesiones de un
pequeño filósofo (1904; “The Confessions
of a Minor Philosopher”), which are
actually little more than
impressionistic essays written in
dialogue. This trilogy operated with
unifying force on the Generation of ’98,
however. Animated by a deep patriotism,
Azorín tirelessly sought through his
work to bring to light what he believed
was of lasting value in Spanish culture.
His book El alma castellana (1900; “The
Castilian Soul”) and his essay
collections La ruta de Don Quijote
(1905; “The Route of Don Quixote”) and
Una hora de España 1560–1590 (1924; An
Hour of Spain, 1560–1590) carefully and
subtly reconstruct the spirit of Spanish
life, directing the reader’s sensibility
by the suggestive power of their prose.
Azorín’s literary criticism, such as Al
margen de los clásicos (1915; “Marginal
Notes to the Classics”), helped to open
up new avenues of literary taste and to
arouse a new enthusiasm for the Spanish
classics at a time when a large portion
of Spanish literature was virtually
unavailable to the public. The
simplicity of Azorín’s style attracted
innumerable imitators, all of whom
failed to achieve his intellectual
subtlety, vitality, and poetic rhythm.
Because
he was interested in keeping Spain aware
of current foreign thinking, Azorín
edited the periodical Revista de
Occidente (“Magazine of the West”) from
1923 to 1936. He spent the period of the
Spanish Civil War in Paris, writing for
the Argentine newspaper La Nación, but
he returned to Madrid in 1949. After his
death a museum including his library was
opened at Monóvar.
