Miguel De Unamuno

A towering figure of political, philosophical, and literary controversy, Miguel de Unamuno was the undisputed intellectual leader of the brilliant Generation of 1898 that ushered in a second golden age of Spanish culture. In the vast and varied body of his work, none conveys his intellectual legacy more effectively than Mist, a monument of the philosophical novel and a masterpiece of modern experimental fiction. Dispensing with the conventions of action, time and place, and analysis of character, Mist proceeds entirely on the strength of dialogue that reveals the struggles of what Unamuno called his "agonists." These include Augusto Perez, the pampered son of a recently deceased mother; the deceitful, scheming Eugenia, whom Augusto obsessively idealizes; and Augusto's dog Orfeo, who gives a funeral oration upon his master's death. Mist even includes a chapter that explains Unamuno's theory of the antinovel. Anticipating later writers such as Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, Unamuno exploited fiction as a vehicle for the exploration of philosophical themes. First published in 1914, Mist exemplified a new kind of novel with which Unamuno aimed to shatter fiction's conventional illusions of reality. It is an antinovel that treats its fictionality ironically. This historic reissue includes a foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski.

The Basque philosopher and poet meditates on man's quest for knowledge, love, immortality, and spiritual salvation.

Three parables by the Spanish philosopher--"Abel Sanchez," "The Madness of Doctor Montarco," and "San Manuel Bueno, Martyr"--explore the horrors of a nothingness beyond death

This book reprints a wide variety of articles and speeches for the first time since they appeared in Spanish and foreign journals and in clandestine broadsheets from France. Some censored material has been restored.

Philosopher, essayist, dramatist, poet, novelist, Unamuno was an impassioned and unorthodox thinker whose novels foreshadow the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Carlos Fuentes. Elegantly simple in language, these novels probe the elemental forces of human personality: In Two Mothers, the demonic will of a woman runs amok in a whirlwind of maternal power, and in The Marquis of Lumbria, another unforgettable heroine steers a violent course through the dense sea of tradition. By contrast, Nothing Less Than a Man, Unamuno’s most forceful piece of writing, focuses on a truly Nietzchean hero, a man who embodies human will deprived of spiritual strength.

Miguel de Unamuno on Espanjan modernin kirjallisuuden tärkeimpiä edustajia. ”Pyhän miehen uhri” kertoo pienen maalaiskylän papista, joka esikuvallisella tavalla huolehtii virastaan ja seurakuntalaisistaan, niin että hänen maineensa pyhänä miehenä leviää laajalle. Hänen tragediansa on, ettei hän itse jaksa uskoa kuoleman jälkeiseen elämään; hänen tuskansa ja uhrinsa on siinä, ettei hän paljasta tätä salaisuuttaan kuin parille häntä lähinnä olevalle. Kirja vangitsee lukijansa – sillä on sanottavaa.

The acknowledged masterpiece of Unamuno expresses the anguish of modern man as he is caught up in the struggle between the dictates of reason and the demands of his own heart.

Suuren espanjalaisen kirjalijan ja ajattelijan, elämän tarkoituksen ja ikuisen epäilijän klassikko, eksistentialismia ja postmodernismia 50 vuotta ennen aikojaan. Augusto Pérez harhailee päämäärättömästi olemassaolon usvassa 1900-luvun alun Madridissa, kun eräänä päivänä pianisti Eugenian säteilevät silmät antavat hänelle elämän suunnan. Rakkauden, yksinäisyyden ja kommunikaation vaikeuden teemojen ympärille syntyy ironisen absurdi teos, rimooni, joka ei tottele romaanin sääntöjä. Teos on monitasoinen kirjallinen peli, todellisuuksien labyrintti, jossa fiktiiviset hahmot, ihminen ja Jumala ovat mutkikkaassa valtasuhteessa - ja kun kenenkään olemassaolo ei tunnukaan enää olevan varmaa, lukijakin alkaa epäillä omaansa. Usva on suuren epäilijän merkittävimpiä teoksia ja hänen keskeisten teemojensa kaunokirjallinen esitys.