Three Exemplary Novels

Philosopher, essayist, dramatist, poet, novelist, Unamuno was an impassioned and unorthodox thinker whose novels foreshadow the works of Gabriel Garc a M rquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Carlos Fuentes. Elegantly simple in language, these novels probe the elemental forces of human personality: In Two Mothers, the demonic will of a woman runs amok in a whirlwind of maternal power, and in The Marquis of Lumbria, another unforgettable heroine steers a violent course through the dense sea of tradition. By contrast, Nothing Less Than a Man, Unamuno's most forceful piece of writing, focuses on a truly Nietzchean hero, a man who embodies human will deprived of spiritual strength.