Reviewed by: Asia en la España del siglo XIX. Literatos, viajeros, intelectuales y diplomáticos ante Orienteby Joan Torres-Pou David R. George Jr Joan Torres-Pou. Asia en la España del siglo XIX. Literatos, viajeros, intelectuales y diplomáticos ante Oriente. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2013. 218 pp. Over the past two decades scholars of nineteenth-century Spanish and Latin American literatures have scrutinized the trans-Atlantic ties between Spain and the Americas. Work in this area has shed new light on the multiple literary discourses generated by colonial and post-colonial exchanges across the Atlantic in a century of imperial expansion. Not only has this focus enriched the field of Spanish studies, but also of late it has impelled critics to look beyond the obvious trans-Atlantic axis to explore how other transnational relations are captured in nineteenth-century literature. In response to the impact of Edward Said’s seminal work on Europe’s relationship with the East Orientalism(1979) and to the recent economic ascendency of China, Latin American Studies has witnessed a “trans-Pacific turn” with research that takes account of the region’s historical and contemporary ties to Asia. Similarly, scholars of Iberian cultures have turned attention to the Far East with studies that retrace the long history of Portuguese and Spanish incursions in the Pacific, and the impact of such exchanges in the peninsula. The six chapters that comprise Joan Torres-Pou’s book Asia en la España del siglo XIXcontribute to this growing area of interest by bringing into the conversation Orientalist writings, and travel narratives and chronicles on Asia by canonical and lesser known Spanish writers of the late-nineteenth century. Torres-Pou begins with a historical overview of European imperialism in Asia emphasizing the predominance of British and French enterprises in the nineteenth century. Of particular relevance to his arguments are notes offered on the creation of institutions dedicated to the study of Asian cultures in Britain and France in the period as key to the development of the discourses of superiority that bolstered colonial projects in the Orient. The author then provides an outline of Spain’s marginal position in this age of empire, concluding even so that, “ya fuera directa o indirectamente, fue partner in crimeen la acción de las demás potencias coloniales en Asia” (17). As evidence of this tacit collaboration he refers to the extensive, but unstudied corpus of literature on Oriental topics by Spanish writers in the second half of the nineteenth century. He declares that his study intends not to be an exhaustive review of Spanish colonial discourses about the Orient or of these materials, but rather a survey of the presence of Asia in nineteenth-century Spanish culture and society (17). In Chapter One the author reads Juan Valera’s late novel Morsamor(1899) through the optic of Orientalism. He draws attention to episodes that reflect the novelist’s interest in Asian religions in order to expose how Orientalist themes are deployed to reveal the essence of religion itself. He examines in particular references to Hinduism and the esoteric philosophies Valera encountered while in the US in the 1880s. Torres-Pou concludes that beyond the affirmation of his religious conviction that God must be sought in Nature, Valera’s exploration constitutes a veiled endorsement of discourses on the Asian origins of European culture that justified imperialist policies (53). [End Page 131] Chapter Two examines works by Valera’s son, Luis Valera y Delavert, inspired by his voyage to China as secretary of the Spanish legation to Peking in 1900. Looking at Sombras chinescas: recuerdos de un viaje al Celeste Imperio(1902), Torres-Pou provides valuable comments on how the younger Valera’s visions of China were colored by the xenophobic and anti-Christian Boxer Rebellion, and the atrocities committed by the rebels, and the Chinese and foreign troops dispatched to quell the summer of 1900 uprising. He correctly points out how the diplomat’s appreciations echo Western images of China, and highlights his understanding of the role of Christian missionaries in exacerbating internal tensions. The theme of cultural clash is further explored in comments on the two short...