Ventura de la Vega and El hombre de mundo

at the Threshold of the Realist Period in Spain

Schinasi, Michael

Ventura de la Vega (Buenos Aires, 1807) llega en 1818 a Madrid, donde pasa el resto de su vida. Alumno de Alberto Lista, hereda su amor por la poesía clásica, pero participa en el furor romántico de la década de 1830. Con sus amigos Larra y Espronceda, es uno de los principales fundadores de la tertulia romántica, El Parnasillo. A mediados de siglo, modera su estética y política exaltadas hacia posiciones conservadoras, y es uno de los literatos más destacados del período. En 1845 nos lega El hombre de mundo, obra que se suele considerar como prototipo de alta comedia de siglo XIX, una anticipación del teatro realista posterior.

Ventura de la Vega (b. Buenos Aires, 1807) arrived in Madrid in 1818 and spent the rest of his life there. He inherited a love for classical poetry from his teacher, Alberto Lista, but in the 1830s he became a fiery Romantic. With his friends, Larra and Espronceda, he was a principal founder of the romantic tertulia, El Parnasillo. As mid century approached he moderated his radical politics and aesthetics and became one of the most notable men of letters of the period. In 1845 he produced El hombre de mundo. Cultural critics often call this play Spain's prototypical high comedy, which anticipates the realist theater of the decades that follow.