Unamuno and his most important works

One of the most important writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is Miguel de Unamuno. This writer was part of the Generation of '98, that is, the generation that included other great names in Spanish literature such as Valle-Inclán, Azorin, Antonio Machado and Ortega y Gasset. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discover Unamuno's most important works so that you better know the mark that this writer left on Hispanic letters.

Index

1. Brief biography of Miguel de Unamuno
2. Niebla, the most important work of Miguel de Unamuno
3. Abel Sánchez, another of Unamuno's best works
4. San Manuel Bueno martyr, another important novel by Unamuno

Before starting to analyze the most important works of Unamuno, we believe that it is essential to know a little about the history and life of this author. He was born in 1864 in Bilbao and he was a well-known writer of the time who, too, was recognized as a philosopher. He was closely linked to the political and social life of the time, which is why he was considered one of the most influential personalities of the

Today, Miguel de Unamuno is one of the key names in Spanish literature since, as we have mentioned, he was part of the well-known Generation of '98. This group made up of intellectuals and artists of the time united to fight against the situation that the country was going through and with the common motto of "Spain hurts me."

Within his literary production we find very disparate and different works: there are novels, there are essays and there is even a "nivola", as he himself baptized. But, to better understand all of his artistic production, below we are going to analyze the most important works of Unamuno that you should know.

Image: Slideshare

We start with one of the essential works within the literary production of Unamuno: Niebla. This work was published in 1914 and it is a totally different book from what had previously been made in Spain, for that very reason, the author he baptized this piece as a "nivola" instead of a novel.

In Unamuno's "Niebla" we find a deep story that places us in a world full of fog, a world in which it is difficult to differentiate reality from fiction. Here we will meet the protagonist whose mother has just died and that he is in a moment of indecision and confusion.

In this novel, Unamuno delves into deep feelings such as pain, existential crises, spiritual voids... That is, it is a existential novel that tells us about the human being and his role in the world.

But the most revolutionary thing about this novel is not his story but the final turn in which the character himself, tired of his miseries, he decides to go face to face with his creator: the author of the story, that is, Unamuno. The character takes the reins of his life and rebels against the author, one of the most important and surprising scenes that we find within Castilian letters.

Image: Unamuno Museum

Although "Niebla" is the author's best known piece, the truth is that there are other names within his literary production that are worth rescuing. One of them is "Abel Sánchez", a novel that appeared in 1917 and that, according to its own author, is the most tragic work that he wrote.

In this work, the author also presents us with a deep and philosophical history where he analyzes the human being in the most real and pathetic vision of him. For this reason, Unamuno shows a protagonist who is subject to the laws of destiny and who is moved by a nefarious and negative feeling: the envy. With this, the author is not only talking about a specific person but, in reality, is making an analysis of the entire Spanish society of the time.

The protagonist is the culprit of "killing" his own life since he only moves out of envy and, due to these feelings, he cannot feel or find happiness. Joaquín Monegro is the name of the main character, but then why did Unamuno give the title of the work “Abel Sánchez”? Basically because, in this way, Unamuno tended the ties between his protagonist and Abel, the biblical character, Cain's brother. In the novel, the character of Abel Sánchez appears, Joaquín's antagonist and the one in charge of taking the life of the main character.

And we end this article with the most important works of Unamuno to tell you about another of the great titles in the author's bibliography: San Manuel Bueno, martir. It is one of the deepest and best-known works of the author and, in fact, many scholars consider it as a authentic masterpiece.

It is a book in which the author delves deeply into his characters and, he does, in a very human and loving way. In this way, we can know them in a very detailed way and with enormous likelihood. San Manuel is the protagonist of this story and Lázaro is its antagonistBoth live many quarrels during the novel that, in the end, will end with the triumph of the priest and his powerful and kind soul.

This novel constitutes one of the representations of a enormous doubt that devastated Unamuno: the existence of God and faith. For this reason, the two co-stars present doubtful consciences and a work with a clear difference between "good and bad" but it is a real work, in which the good also have evil and vicecersa.

"San Manuel Bueno, martyr" is a real and very intimate work. Unamuno introduces us to a clergyman, in the privacy of his bedroom, having doubts about his faith and his own convictions. Thus, the authentic and intimate drama of the parish priest is shown before us. But next to him is Angela, a girl who does believe blindly in God and in Catholicism, something that makes the clergyman have more strength to be able to reorient his beliefs and his faith.

It is not an atheistic novel if not, simply, of a novel that theorizes about faith and religious beliefs. And it is done from a very intimate and real prism where the human being has doubts about his own convictions and experiences moments of confusion and in which he can feel lost.

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