Political Revolution and Literary Experiment in the Spanish Romantic Period (1830-1850) by Andrew Ginger (review)

Abstract

MLR, 96. , 200I MLR, 96. , 200I MLR, 96. , 200I will eventually allow individuals to create concordances for their own purposes (p. 321), whether they are literarycriticism, textual criticism,linguistic analysis or the investigationof authorship.Don Pedrowould have been astonished,but, given his concern for the correctnessof his texts, and for correct attributions,he would surelyhave approved. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN D. W. CRUICKSHANK Lossonetos deFrancisco dela Torre.By SOLEDAD PEREZ-ABADIN BARRO.(Manchester Spanish and Portuguese Studies, 5. Cafiada Blanch Monographs, 2) Manchester :Department of Spanishand Portuguese. 1997. 224 pp. ?I9.95. The poetry of Francisco de la Torre, first published by Quevedo in 1631, has attracted the attention of several recent scholars, among them Soledad PerezAbadin Barro,who has alsowrittenstudiesof his odes and his canciones. In thisbook, a substantial addition to the Manchester Series, she turns her attention to his sonnets, in the belief that he is not a minor poet but a major figure, worthy to be placed alongside Garcilaso and Herrera. The seven chapters provide a general overview of de la Torre's poetry as well as a detailed analysis of the sixty-four sonnetsin his Obras. Afterconsideringcriticalviews of hiswork(Chapter i), and the place of the sonnet in Renaissance literarytheory(Chapter2), they examine in turn the topoi and codes of amorousdiscourseon which he draws,the structuringdevices he employsto create thematiccycles, his technique and style,and the waysin which he tends to constructindividualpoems. They conclude with some general remarks on his achievement. Perez-Abadin Barro is a careful scholar with an eye for detail, and her study, which provides an exhaustive description of its subject, is packed with data and bibliographicreferencesthat open up furtherlines of enquiry.In these respectsit is faithful to the methodology in which she believes: 'aportar datos especificos que proporcionen una caracterizaci6nemancipada de criteriosvalorizanteso clasificatorios '(p. 8). It is doubtfulthat she succeeds in provingthat de la Torrewas a major poet: to do this, she would have had to avail of the 'criterios valorizantes o clasificatorios'that her method eschews. She does show, however, that he was a versatile sonneteer, entirely at home in the Italianate conventions that shape his verse, and that his lyricsare worthy of the close examination to which she subjects them. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK TERENCE O'REILLY Political Revolution andLiterary Experiment intheSpanish Romantic Period (1830-1850). By ANDREW GINGER. (Hispanic Literature Series, Volume 47) Lewiston, Queenston and Lampeter:The EdwinMellen Press. 1999. 406 pp. $109.95. Ever since the publication of Javier Herrero's splendid Losorigenes delpensamiento reaccionario espafol(Madrid:Edieusa, 1971) followed by his now classic article 'El naranjo romantico: esencia del costumbrismo' (HR 46 (I978), 343-54, alas, not included in Ginger's bibliography,where the book title also is incomplete, among sundryothererrorsand omissions),we have been able to understandone side of the intellectual/political backgroundto Spanish Romanticism and, up to a point, how it manifested itselfin creative writing.What Ginger attemptsto do here is to carry on theinvestigationby examiningaspectsofModerado (Conservative)andProgressive Liberal thought in Spain between 1830 and I850, and relating them to certain will eventually allow individuals to create concordances for their own purposes (p. 321), whether they are literarycriticism, textual criticism,linguistic analysis or the investigationof authorship.Don Pedrowould have been astonished,but, given his concern for the correctnessof his texts, and for correct attributions,he would surelyhave approved. UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN D. W. CRUICKSHANK Lossonetos deFrancisco dela Torre.By SOLEDAD PEREZ-ABADIN BARRO.(Manchester Spanish and Portuguese Studies, 5. Cafiada Blanch Monographs, 2) Manchester :Department of Spanishand Portuguese. 1997. 224 pp. ?I9.95. The poetry of Francisco de la Torre, first published by Quevedo in 1631, has attracted the attention of several recent scholars, among them Soledad PerezAbadin Barro,who has alsowrittenstudiesof his odes and his canciones. In thisbook, a substantial addition to the Manchester Series, she turns her attention to his sonnets, in the belief that he is not a minor poet but a major figure, worthy to be placed alongside Garcilaso and Herrera. The seven chapters provide a general overview of de la Torre's poetry as well as a detailed analysis of the sixty-four sonnetsin his Obras. Afterconsideringcriticalviews of hiswork(Chapter i), and the place of the sonnet in Renaissance literarytheory(Chapter2...