Novel
The House of Ulloa
Los pazos de Ulloa
Emilia Pardo Bazán · 1886
Opening lines
Por más que el jinete trataba de sofrenarlo agarrándose con todas sus fuerzas a la única rienda de cordel y susurrando palabritas calmantes y mansas, el peludo rocín seguía empeñándose en bajar la cuesta a un trote cochinero […]
However hard the rider tried to rein him in, clinging with all his might to the single cord rein and whispering soft, soothing words, the shaggy nag kept insisting on going down the slope at a jolting trot […]
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Julián Álvarez, a shy and pious young priest, is sent as chaplain to the manor of the Ulloas, in the Galician countryside, to serve don Pedro Moscoso, whom everyone calls the marquis. There he finds a house almost in ruins, a master who thinks only of hunting, and a cunning steward, Primitivo, who in fact runs the estate; his daughter Sabel, the cook, is don Pedro's mistress and the mother of his son. Julián eventually persuades the marquis to change his life and to go and look for a wife among his cousins in Santiago.
Context
Published in 1886, the novel forms a diptych with La madre naturaleza, published the following year, which continues its story. It is regarded as the most accomplished illustration, in Spain, of the naturalism that came from Zola. Gonzalo Suárez made a television series from it in 1985 that takes in the sequel. The Real Academia Española published a critical edition of it in 2017, by Ermitas Penas, and the English translation by Paul O'Prey and Lucia Graves appeared with Penguin in 1990.
Who it is for
A naturalist novel in Castilian, whose action is divided between a manor house in the Galician countryside and the city of Santiago.
Prizes and reception
One of the best-known works of its author, the first woman to hold a chair of Neo-Latin literatures at the Central University of Madrid.