Dona Luz

A Novel

Robert M. Fedorchek

2002
177 pages
$53.00
ISBN 1611481778
LC 2002021539

Juan Valera (1824-1905), one of nineteenth-century Spain's most respected authors, wrote novels, short stories, poetry, essays, and literary criticism. The unifying thread of his work is "art for art's sake," that is, beauty as the end and purpose of inspiration and creativity. Two examples in long works of this aesthetic credo are his novels Pepita Jiménez (1874) and the novel translated here, Doña Luz (1879); the former is about a seminarian who falls in love with a young widow, and the latter, is about another young woman, one who seeks to escape the stigma of illegitimacy and lead a quiet life. The introduction discusses Valera's aesthetics and oeuvre and analyzes Doña Luz in relation to them, as well as to other nineteenth-century Spanish and European novels; Notes explain cultural, historical, and literary references; the Select Bibliography lists first editions of Valera's novels, modern editions of Doña Luz, English translation of Valera's novels, and secondary sources.

Introduction by Beth Wietelmann. Beth Wietelmann Bauer is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University. She received her M.A. from the University of Virginia and her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Focusing primarily on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spanish peninsular literature, her research and teaching interests incorporate the critical perspectives of women's and cultural studies and examine literary representations of the interplay of gender, class, and changing economic realities.

About the author:

Robert M. Fedorchek is a Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fairfield University. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut and studied at Yale and the Universities of Madrid and Lisbon. He is the translator of ten other Bucknell University Press publications.