LARRA, MARIANO JOSE DE (1809-1837)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 224 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: LAP-LEO

LARRA, MARIANO JOSE DE (1809-1837) , Spanish satirist, was born at Madrid in 1809. His father served as a regimental

doctor

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

in the French army, and was compelled to leave the
Peninsula with his family in 1812. In 1817 Larra returned to Spain, knowing less Spanish than French. His nature was disorderly, his education was imperfect, and, after futile attempts to obtain a degree in

medicine

MEDICINE

or law, he made an imprudent

marriage

MARRIAGE

at the age of twenty, broke with his relatives and became a journalist. On the 27th of April 1831 he produced his first play, No mds mostrador, based on two pieces by Scribe and Dieulafoy. Though wanting in originality, it is brilliantly written, and held the stage for many years. On the 24th of September 1834 he produced Macias, a play based on his own historical novel, El Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente (1834). The drama and novel are interesting as experiments, but Larra was essentially a journalist, and the increased liberty of the

press

PRESS (through Fr. presse from Lat. pressare, frequentative of premere, to crush, squeeze, press)

after the death of Ferdinand VII. gave his

caustic

CAUSTIC (Gr. rcavvraubs, burning)

talent an ampler field. He was already famous under the pseudonyms of " Juan Perez de Mungufa " and " Figaro " which he used in El Pobrecito Hablador and La Revista Espanola respectively. Madrid laughed at his grim humour; ministers feared his vitriolic pen and courted him assiduously; he was elected as

deputy

DEPUTY (through the Fr. from a Late Lat. use of deputare, to cut off, allot; putare having the original sense of to trim, prune)

for Avila, and a

great

GREAT

career seemed to lie before him. But the era of military pronunciamientos ruined his personal prospects and patriotic plans. His writing took on a more sombre tinge; domestic troubles increased his pessimism, and, in consequence of a disastrous love-affair, he committed suicide on the 13th of February 1837. Larra lived long enough to prove himself the greatest

prose

PROSE

-writer that Spain can boast during the 19th century. He wrote at

great

GREAT

speed

SPEED, JOHN (1552–1629)

with the constant fear of the censor before his eyes, but no sign of haste is discernible in his

work

WORK

, and the dexterity with which he aims his venomous shafts is amazing. His political instinct, his abundance of ideas and his forcible, mordant style would have given him a foremost position at any time and in any country; in Spain, and in his
own period, they placed him beyond all rivalry. (J. F.-K.)

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