"Alsino," by Chilean novelist and poet Pedro Prado, is unquestionably the highest expression of the philosophical and psychological tendency in the Spanish-American narrative. Some critics have classified it as a fairy tale, others as an allegory, and still others as a work of transcendental symbolism. The enduring value of "Alsino" is reflected clearly in the author's wise blending of the novel's mythological content (evocative of the Icarus legend) and the setting's essential reality (Chile's and the author's rural South). The novel's bi-level nature and the poetry of its prose have long joined to attract readers at all levels and to ensure its endurance as a classic in Spanish America.