Chronicle
Fígaro. Colección de artículos
Not translated into English
Mariano José de Larra · 1835
Synopsis
A collection of articles that the author chose himself from those he had given to newspapers since 1832, most of them under the signature of Fígaro: theatre and literary reviews, political articles and sketches of manners. In them he mocks the society of his time and the organisation of the State, attacks absolutism and the Carlists, censorship and the death penalty, and points out the misuse of the language. The title of one of them, “Vuelva usted mañana” (“come back tomorrow”), is still used to denounce the failings of the country.
Context
The full title announces articles on theatre, literature, politics and manners. Three volumes appeared in 1835 from the Madrid printer Repullés, two others in 1837. The author collected there what he had published since 1832, first in El Pobrecito Hablador, then in La Revista Española, where he had adopted the name Fígaro. The Royal Spanish Academy published in 2016 an edition prepared by Alejandro Pérez Vidal.
Who it is for
Short newspaper articles, independent of one another, which the allusions to the politics of the day make clearer in an annotated edition.
Prizes and reception
In 1901, writers of the Generation of 98, among them Unamuno and Baroja, came to lay flowers on his grave in homage to his thought.