Spanish Authors

This Spanish writer who was born in Polanco (Cantabria), near Santander, is one of Spain's most noted regional novelists. He studied firstly in Santander and then in Madrid at the Escuela de Artillería (Madrid Artillery School), which he soon left to focus on his literary work, thanks to an older brother's support who provided him with an income.

Literary critics consider Sotileza (1884), an epic on the Santander fisher folk, to be his finest piece of work and one of the greatest Spanish novels of the 19th Century. Other works include Escenas montañesas (1864), Don Gonzalo González de la Gonzalera (1879), and El sabor de la tierruca (1882).  He was named a member of the Real Academia Española in 1896, and died 10 years later in Santander.