Most important WORKS by José de ESPRONCEDA

One of the authors of Spanish Romanticism The best known and most established is José de Espronceda, author of great works such as "The Student of Salamanca" that is studied in the vast majority of institutes and universities. He is considered one of the first poets to join this new literary trend and a predecessor of other great authors such as Gustavo Aldolfo Bécquer or Rosalía de Castro. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover you the most important works of José de Espronceda and relevant to his entire literary career. An essential and well-studied author of which, now, we will give you a summary.

Index

1. Brief biography of José de Espronceda
2. The student from Salamanca, Espronceda's most important poem
3. The pirate's song
4. El diablo mundo, another great work by Espronceda

Before talking about the most important works of José de Espronceda, it is essential to stop at the way to know, briefly, the life of the author and contextualize it in the history of the literature. Espronceda was born in Almendralejo (Badajoz) in 1808 and died in Madrid in 1842, as you can see, he died very young, only 34 years old, due to diphtheria. He is the most important poet of the

He is regarded as one of the authors of Romanticism most prominent and important; in fact, he is considered to be the "first Spanish romantic poet" and his style was strongly influenced by Byron. The sentimental exaltation, so typical of the first Romanticism, is very present in the verses of this author who, in addition, shares a liberal and revolutionary ideology. Lord Byron's influence is very clear in Espronceda's works, especially in his best-known poem: The Salamanca student.

If we talk about the works of José de Espronceda, the most prominent name of his production is, without a doubt, "The student from Salamanca". We are facing a long narrative poem The first part of which appeared in 1837, but could not be read in full until 1840. It has a total of 1704 verses and a structure divided into 4 parts. The theme of this poem is legend of Don Juan Tenorio, a literary myth that, in fact, was also adapted by another great Spanish romantic poet: Jose Zorrilla.

In this poem, we find that Espronceda takes advantage of some of the motifs that could already be seen in other versions about Don Juan as, for example, the presence of madness, the woman presented as a skeleton, death present throughout the poem, etc. But the Spanish author includes some interesting news What:

• Riskier versioning
• Mix of different genres
• A more rebellious and cynical protagonist

Structure of The Salamanca student

In this poem, we find a very well defined and organized structure, which helps us better understand the plot and get to know the characters.

1. Foreword. Here we meet the protagonist, a student who is in Salamanca and who goes by the name of Don Félix de Montemar. He is a dominant man, distrustful and very womanizing.
2. Elvira. Here we meet Elvira and all her regrets, a woman who falls in love with the student and who has a bad love affair.
3. Revenge. In the third part is when the revenge orchestrated by Elvira's brother takes place.
4. Duel. The highlight of the poem is the duel between the brother and Don Félix, a battle to the death that ends with the murder of Elvira's brother.

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In addition to "The Student of Salamanca", there are other works by José de Espronceda that are also very important and studied. One of them is "The pirate's song ", a lyrical composition that renders homage to the character of pirates, to his way of life and his passion for nature and freedom. And it is that the figure of the pirate contains many of the elements defended by the romantics such as loneliness, communion with nature, life lived in its maximum splendor, and so on.

This poem by Espronceda was published in 1835 in the magazine El Artista and, in his verses, we can see how the author admires to the pirates for their freedom and for their way of living in such a different way and away from the norms imposed by the society. Currently, this poem is one of the most representative of Romanticism Spanish literary and collected in the book Poetry (1846).

This poem is part of a collection of 5 poems that José de Espronceda wrote to citizens who lived differently in our society. People who had established their own rules and who were marginalized from social conventions: pirates, beggars, executioners, Cossacks, and the death row.

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We finish this review of the most important works of José de Espronceda to tell you about another of the author's best-known poems: El diablo mundo. It is a long poem that remained unfinished for the soon death of the author; he began to write it in 1839 and some of the fragments of it were published in important magazines of the time.

Devil world by Espronceda is a composition that deals with different themes such as God, death or life. The poem has elements of drama and narration in a very original and surprising text. It is a very complex work that shows us an ironic perspective of a world dominated by evil: the Devil World. In the text there are reflections of other European romantic works such as Faust, by Gothe, or Candido by Voltaire; of course, there is also a trace of Calderón de la Barcaand his life is a dream.

The protagonist of the story is Adam, a man who is seen with the attitude of having to choose between life or death. In the very title of the poem we can already perceive the idea that Espronceda had about the world: evil was inert in him, as one more part of his identity, as something inseparable from his essence. The unfinished work is divided into 7 acts that begin with a prelude where the Poet (character in the text) must choose between life and death.

The innovation of this poem is found in the fact that Espronceda is committed to creating a first-person narrator who, on many occasions, tends to be confused with the voice of the author. This confusion is increased because the narrator interrupts the story and includes different ironic thoughts and comments that you are not sure if they are from the character-narrator or if they are from the author.

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If you want to read more articles similar to Most important works of José de Espronceda, we recommend that you enter our category of History of Literature.

• Valera, J. (1854). Of romanticism in Spain and Espronceda ”. Complete works. Volume II, 7-19.
• From Espronceda, J. (2019). The Salamanca student (Vol. 81). Castalia.
• From Espronceda, J. (1852). The devil world. Gaspar and Roig.