Pío Baroja's ‘Beizama’: A Crime Retold

Abstract

This article studies the work of Pío Baroja in one of his later trilogies, La selva oscura . It focuses upon the ‘crimen de Beizama’. This crime is referred to under the title of ‘Silencio’ in Book Four of El cabo de las tormentas (Volume 2 of La selva oscura). Yet the same crime also forms a substantial part of Las mascaradassangrientas in Baroja's Memorias de un hombre de acción . The article considers how Baroja portrays the same crime in two different texts, set in entirely different historical moments. Having located many of the documentary sources Baroja may have had at his disposal, notably newspaper reports and pamphlets, the article compares the details contained in these with those portrayed in both ‘Silencio’ and Las mascaradas sangrientas in order to ascertain exactly how Baroja was using source material as well as what kind of Realism he was cultivating towards the end of his career and how it might be defined. What becomes clear is that Baroja gives two entirely different and contrasting portrayals and that he uses documentary material to serve different purposes.