Armando Palacio Valdés


Armando Palacio Valdés was a Spanish novelist and critic.

Biography

Valdés was born at Entralgo in the province of Asturias on the October 4, 1853.
His first writings were printed in the Revista Europea. These were pungent essays, remarkable for independent judgment and refined humour, and found so much favor with the public that the young beginner was soon appointed editor of the Revista. The best of his critical work is collected in Los Oradores del Ateneo, Los Novelistas españoles, Nuevo viaje al Parnaso and La Literatura en 1881, this last being written in collaboration with Leopoldo Alas.
In 1881 he published a novel, El señorito Octavio, which shows an uncommon power of observation, and the optimistic promise of better things to come. In Marta y Maria, a portrayal of the struggle between religious vocation and earthly passion, somewhat in the manner of Valera, Palacio Valdés achieved a popular triumph.
According to a contemporaneous assessment by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly in the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition:
A collection of his short stories appeared in English translation in 1935.

Works

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