Jacinto Benavente y Martínez (12 August 1866 – 14 July 1954) was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922 "for the happy manner in which he has continued the illustrious traditions of the Spanish drama".

Biography

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, the son of a celebrated pediatrician, he returned drama to reality by way of social criticism: declamatory verse giving way to prose, melodrama to comedy, formula to experience, impulsive action to dialogue and the play of minds. Benavente showed a preoccupation with aesthetics and later with ethics. A liberal

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalis ...

and a critic of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

, he was a reluctant supporter of

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

as the only viable alternative to what he considered the disastrous republican experiment of 1931–1936. In 1936 Benavente's name became associated with the assassination of the Spanish poet and dramatist

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

. This happened when the Nationalist newspapers ''Estampa'', ''El Correo de Andalucia,'' and ''Ideal'' circulated a fake news story that Lorca had been killed as a reprisal for the Republican murder of Benavente. Benavente died in Aldeaencabo de Escalona ( Toledo) at the age of 87. He never married. According to many sources, he was

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

Retiro Park Jacinto Benavente Monument (Madrid,Spain)

Principal works

Jacinto Benavente wrote 172 works. Among his most important works are: * ''El nido ajeno'' (''Another's Nest'', 1894), comedy, three acts. * ''Gente conocida'' (''High Society'', 1896), satirical scenes of modern life, four acts. * ''La Gobernadora'' (''The Governor's Wife'', 1901), comedy, three acts. * ''La noche del sábado'' (''Saturday Night'', 1903), stage romance, five divisions; Imperia is a ballerina and later prostitute who falls in love with Prince Miguel, who will take the throne of Swabia. * ''Rosas de otoño'' (''Autumnal Roses'', 1905), sentimental comedy, three acts. * ''Los intereses creados'' (''The Bonds of Interest'', 1907), comedy of masks based on the Italian

commedia dell'arte (; ; ) was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is also known as , , and . Charact ...

; Benavente's most famous and often performed work. * ''Señora ama'' (''The Lady of the House'', 1908), rural drama; a penetrating psychological study of a woman jealous of her husband. * ''El príncipe que todo lo aprendió en los libros'' (1909) * '' The Unloved Woman'' (''La malquerida''), 1913), rural psychological drama, three acts; the basis for the 1921 film ''

The Passion Flower ''The Passion Flower'' is a 1921 American drama film starring Norma Talmadge, Courtenay Foote, and Eulalie Jensen, and directed by Herbert Brenon. It is based on the 1913 Spanish play '' The Unloved Woman'' (Spanish: ''La malquerida'') by Jac ...

'', starring

Norma Talmadge Norma Marie Talmadge (May 2, 1894 – December 24, 1957) was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box-office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most pop ...

. * ''La ciudad alegre y confiada'' (1916), continuation from ''Los intereses creados''. * ''Campo de armiño'' (1916) * ''Lecciones de buen amor'' (1924) * ''La mariposa que voló sobre el mar'' (1926) * ''Pepa Doncel'' (1928) * ''Vidas cruzadas'' (1929) * ''Aves y pájaros'' (1940) * ''La honradez de la cerradura'' (1942) * ''La infanzona'' (1945) * ''Titania'' (1946) * ''La infanzona'' (1947) * ''Abdicación'' (1948) * ''Ha llegado Don Juan'' (1952) *'' El alfiler en la boca'' (1954) * ''Hijos, padres de sus padres'' (''Sons, Fathers of Their Parents'', 1954)

References

External links

* *
Works by Jacinto Benavente

List of Works
* * * Biography and bibliography a

* Brief article in th

* ''Encyclopedia of World Biography'' article, reproduced a
BookRags.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benavente, Jacinto 1866 births 1954 deaths Writers from Madrid Spanish gay writers Nobel laureates in Literature Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Spanish dramatists and playwrights Spanish male dramatists and playwrights Spanish Nobel laureates Spanish monarchists Complutense University of Madrid alumni Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (National faction) LGBT Nobel laureates LGBT dramatists and playwrights LGBT history in Spain