Emilia Pardo Bazan

Emilia Pardo Bazán was a prominent Spanish writer of the 19th and early 20th century. She was born into an affluent noble family in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. She was the only child of José Pardo Bazán y Mosquera and Amalia de la Rúa Figueroa y Somoza. Her father, believing in the intellectual equality of men and women, provided her with the best education possible, inspiring her life-long love for literature. She wrote her first poems at the age of nine. Emilia had access to a broad range of reading material in her father's library, later stating that among her favorites were Don Quijote de la Mancha, the Bible and the Iliad. She also became fluent in French, English, and German. At the age of sixteen Emilia married Don José Antonio de Quiroga y Pérez de Deza, a country gentleman who was himself only eighteen and still a law student. They had three children: Jaime, Carmen and Blanca. The marriage was unhappy and they separated in 1884. Emilia devoted herself to her literary career and traveled extensively in Europe. She met leading writers such as Victor Hugo, Edmond de Goncourt and Emile Zola. She also became interested in feminism and advocated for women's rights and education. Emilia Pardo Bazán is known for introducing naturalism into Spanish literature, for her detailed descriptions of reality, and for her ground-breaking introduction of feminist ideas into the literature of her era. She wrote novels, short stories, essays, articles, literary criticism, poetry, plays, translations and edited several journals and magazines. Some of her most famous works are La cuestión palpitante (The Critical Issue), a series of essays on naturalism; Los pazos de Ulloa (The House of Ulloa), a novel that depicts the decadence of an aristocratic family; La tribuna (The Tribune), a novel that portrays the life of a female factory worker; Insolación (Sunstroke), a novel that explores female sexuality; La madre naturaleza (Mother Nature), a sequel to Los pazos de Ulloa; La quimera (The Chimera), a novel that satirizes the literary world; and Cuentos de Marineda (Stories from Marineda), a collection of short stories set in her native Galicia. Emilia Pardo Bazán was also a professor of literature at the Central University of Madrid and the first woman to hold a chair at a Spanish university. She was also a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Royal Galician Academy. She died in Madrid on May 12, 1921, from complications of diabetes. She was buried at the Church of La Concepción in Madrid. Her legacy as a writer and a feminist remains influential in Spanish culture.