A rich and unforgettable tragic-comic novel of
sexual intrigue and political scheming, The House of
Ulloa is one of the greatest works of
nineteenth-century Spanish literature. The House
of Ulloa follows pure and pious Father Julián
Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put
the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine,
in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty and
corruption at his new home, Julián's well-meaning but
ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of
Ulloa end in tragedy. Combining gothic elements with
humour and social satire, The House of Ulloa is
the finest achievement of Emilia Pardo Bazán, a prolific
writer, feminist, traveller and intellectual, and one of
the most dynamic figures of her time. Brilliantly
balancing biting satire and gothic undertones, and
evoking a rich sense of place, this is a wonderful novel
that deserves to be ranked with the other great books of
the period. The Countess Emilia Pardo Bazán was born
in 1851 and married at sixteen. After separating from
her husband, she embarked on an affair with novelist
Benito Pérez Galdós. The House of Ulloa (1886) is
generally considered as her masterpiece among her many
literary works. Professor Paul O'Prey is
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, London.
Lucia Graves has translated works by Robert Graves,
Anaïs Nin, Katherine Mansfield and Carlos Ruiz Zafón,
and is the author of a memoir, A Woman Unknown,
and a novel, The Memory
House.
'An absolutely first-rate
novelist [...] Bazán's genius lies in the way she mixes
comedy, farce, realism and heightened-pitch hysteria
with a dash of gothic [...] People may travel by donkey
in this book, but it could have been written yesterday'
- Nick Lezard, Guardian 'Pardo Bazán's mastery of
social types and of the political currents that swirled
around the liberal revolution are unsurpassed in Spanish
literature ... O'Prey and Graves ... avoid awkward
literalisms while nonetheless remaining true to the
spirit of the original' New Criterion
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