Juan Valera stands out as a literary critic and as an essayist on the most diverse issues. His articles on literary themes characterize him for his culture and wit, with abundant assessments of the classics and contemporary literature. His philosophical, political, and religious essays reveal him as an ambitious thinker, of invaluable learning about the ideological currents of the Spanish and European politics of his time. 

His temperament moves him far from the prevailing Romanticism in vogue. His ideals of refined elegance also explain his reluctance to the Realism that develops in Spain during his mature years. In between both tendencies, Valera firmly proclaims himself as an independent esthetician. For him, the mission of the novelist is neither to shake the feelings, nor to bear witness to human miseries or to propose theses, but rather to create attractive, intelligent, and beautiful works, focusing on beauty above all else. He's convinced that, even if the reality is depressing and dirty, the writer must lie for the comfort of his readers. Despite all of this, the writer often places his novels infeasible and contemporary settings, with credible characters, although eliminating whenever possible the painful and ugly aspects of reality.

His realism oriented mainly towards the psychological aspect, Valera's novels are a detailed and subtle analysis of human feelings, especially when dealing with female characters. A critical and a thinker, his ideological and vital position is always present in his novels. The dominant theme is always the conflict between human impulses and religious sentiments, the latter most of the time lacking any depth or true conviction. His message is also clear,  the vital forces of love and the will to happiness always prevail over pseudo mysticism and the shallow search for the absolute, driven actually by fanatical spirits. The novelist carefully masks his ideology with a cautious tone,  but the reader perceives the author's real convictions based on his subtle irony, the only weapon Valera talented wields.

Pepita Jiménez 

El comendador Mendoza 

Genio y figura 

Cuentos y chascarrillos andaluces 

The novel Pepita Jiménez, written in the form of letters, deals with the life and feelings of the young seminarian Don Luis de Vargas and the young widow who gives the novel its name.

Narrative

In 1927, a series of young writers gathered at the Seville Athenaeum to commemorate the third centenary of Góngora's death. There are writers like García Lorca, Dámaso Alonso, Gerardo Diego, Alberti, Salinas, Vicente Aleixandre, and Luis Cernuda, among the most representative of what would later become the Generation of '27. Of approximate age and similar academic training, they constitute a compact group and all its members were aware of belonging to the group of this literary generation.

 The Generation of ‘27 has been characterized since its origin by the search for a new poetic language, even when each member develops their personal style. These poets' desire for renewal is combined with fair respect for the literature of the past. They admired Unamuno, and especially Antonio Machado, they fairly valued Rubén Darío and felt a fascination for Juan Ramón Jiménez and Bécquer, especially in his early days. In their search for a strictly poetic language, the example of Góngora was decisive, well known by the elaborate language within in his work Polifemo. 

Despite their highly cultured aesthetics, these writers have a veneration for popular forms, such as the traditional Cancionero and ballads. In addition to this admiration for tradition, they were also influenced by foreign literary currents, such as the French poet Valèry or the Anglo-Saxon T. S. Eliot. The group evolves from the original search for pure poetry, with even dehumanizing features due to its influence with the surrealist movement, towards the literature of social commitment, in the years preceding the Spanish Civil War, assimilating past and traditional forms with other more modern ones and produces an immense renewal of Spanish lyric.

Realism

Benito Pérez Galdós publishes his first novel, La fontana de oro. 

Benito Pérez Galdós starts his Episodios nacinales, a collection of forty-six historical novel on Spanish history.

Gaspar Nuñez de Arce writes Gritos de combate , a series of articles  on freedom and orden.

José María de Perede writes El sabor de la tierruca, a model of regional novel.

Émile Zola starts the cycle of twenty novels know as Les Rougon-Macquart.

Guy de Maupassant writes the short story A life, on the tension between stasis and change.

Leopoldo Lugones publishes Las montañas del oro.

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Pepita Jieménez (1874)

By Juan Valera

Time Period: Realism

Genre: Narrative

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