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PEDRO ANTONIO DE ALARCON (1833-1891)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 470 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PEDRO See also:

ANTONIO DE See also:ALARCON (1833-1891)  , See also:Spanish writer, was See also:born on the loth of See also:March 1833 at See also:Guadix . He graduated at the university of See also:Granada, studied See also:law and See also:theology privately, and made his first See also:appearance as a dramatist before he was of See also:age . Deciding to follow literature as a profession, he joined with Torcuato Thrrago y Mateos in editing a See also:Cadiz See also:news-See also:paper entitled El Eco de Occidente . In 1853 he travelled to See also:Madrid in the See also:hope of finding a publisher for his continuation of See also:Espronceda's celebrated poem, El Diablo Mundo . Disappointed in his See also:object, and finding no opening at the See also:capital, he settled at Granada, became a See also:radical journalist in that See also:city, and showed so much ability that in 1854 he was appointed editor of a republican See also:journal, El Ldtigo, published at Madrid . The extreme violence of his polemics led to a See also:duel between him and the Byronic poet, Jose Heriberto See also:Garcia Quevedo . The earliest of his novels, El Final de Norma, was published in 1855, and though its construction is feeble it brought the writer into See also:notice as a See also:master of elegant See also:prose . A small See also:anthology, called Mananas de Abril y See also:Mayo (1856), proves that See also:Alarcon was re-cognized as a See also:leader by See also:young men of promise, for among the contributors were Castelar, See also:Manuel del Palacio and See also:Lopez de See also:Ayala . A dramatic piece, El Hijo prodigo, was hissed off the See also:stage in 1857, and the failure so stung Alarcon that he enlisted under O'Donnell's command as a volunteer for the See also:war in See also:Morocco . His Diario de un testigo de la guerra de See also:Africa (1859) is a brilliant See also:account of the expedition . The first edition, amounting to fifty thousand copies, was sold within a fortnight, and Alarcon's name became famous throughout the See also:peninsula . The See also:book is not in any sense a formal See also:history; it is a See also:series of picturesque impressions rendered with remarkable force .

On his return from Africa Alarcon did the Liberal party much See also:

good service as editor of La Politica, but after his See also:marriage in 1866 to a devout See also:lady, Paulina Contrera y Reyes, he modified his See also:political views considerably . On the overthrow of the See also:monarchy in 1868, Alarcon advocated the claims of the duc de See also:Montpensier, was neutral during the See also:period of the See also:republic, and declared himself a Conservative upon the restoration of the See also:dynasty in See also:December 1874 . These political See also:variations alienated Alarcbn's old See also:allies and failed to conciliate the royalists . But though his political See also:influence was ruined, his success as a writer was greater than ever . The publication in the Revista Europea (1874) of a See also:short See also:story, El See also:Sombrero de tres picos, a most ingenious resetting of an old popular See also:tale, made him almost as well known out of See also:Spain as in it . This remarkable See also:triumph in the picturesque vein encouraged him to produce other See also:works of the same See also:kind; yet though his Cuentos amatorios (1881), his Historietas nacionales (1881) and his Narraciones inverosimiles (1882) are pleasing, they have not the delightful gaiety and See also:charm of. their predecessor . In a longer novel, El Escdndalo (1875), Alarcon had appeared as a See also:partisan of the neo-See also:Catholic reaction, and this See also:change of See also:opinion brought upon him many attacks, mostly unjust . His usual See also:bad See also:fortune followed him, for while the Radicals denounced him as an apostate, the neo-Catholics alleged that El Esc4ndalo was tainted with See also:Jansenism . Of his later volumes, written in failing See also:health and See also:spirits, it is only necessary to mention El Capitan Veneno and the Historia de mis libros, both issued in 1881 . Alarcon was elected a member of the Spanish See also:Academy in 1875 . He died at Madrid on the 2oth of See also:July 1891 . His later novels and tales are disfigured by their didactic tendency, by feeble See also:drawing of See also:character, and even by certain gallicisms of See also:style .

But, at his best, Alarcon may be read with See also:

great See also:pleasure . The Diario de un testigo is still unsurpassed as a picture of campaigning See also:life, while El Sombrero de tres picos is a very perfect example of malicious wit and See also:minute observation . (J .

End of Article: PEDRO ANTONIO DE ALARCON (1833-1891)
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