José de Cadalso y Vázquez (

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

, 1741 –

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, 1782) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

soldier, novelist, poet, playwright and essayist. He was one of the major authors of

Spanish Enlightenment literature Spanish Enlightenment literature is the literature of Spain written during the Age of Enlightenment. During the 18th century a new mentality emerged (in essence a continuation of the Renaissance) which swept away the old values of the Baroque era ...

Career

Before completing his twentieth year, Cadalso had traveled through

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, Germany, England, France and

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, and he had studied the history and literature of these countries. On his return to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

he entered the army and rose to the rank of colonel. Cadalso was the embodiment of the Enlightenment ideal of the "hombre de bien", a learned and well-rounded citizen whose multitude of interests could be utilized to improve society. He was a central figure in the literary landscape of eighteenth-century Spain, especially in the

tertulia A ''tertulia'' (, ; ; ) is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones, especially in Iberian Peninsula, Iberia or in Spanish America. Tertulia also means an informal meeting of people to talk about current affairs, arts, etc. The word ...

held at the Fonda de San Sebastián. He influenced a number of Spanish authors, not least among them a young and talented Juan Meléndez Valdés.

Works

His first published work was a verse tragedy, ''Don Sancho García, Conde de Castilla'' (1771). In 1772, he published his ''Los eruditos a la violeta'' (Wise men without learning), a commercially successful prose satire on the obsession with superficial knowledge and the appearance of erudition. In 1773 appeared a volume of miscellaneous poems, ''Ocios de mi juventud'' (Pastimes of my youth). Cadalso is best known for his ''Cartas marruecas'' (Moroccan letters), an epistolary novel published posthumously by the ''Correo de Madrid'' newspaper from 1789 to 1790, and as a book in 1793. The ''Cartas marruecas'' have often been compared to

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal so ...

's ''Lettres persanes'' (Persian letters, 1721), although in reality both works represented the period's fascination with epistolary narrative. ''Cartas marruecas'' and ''Noches lúgubres'' (Mournful nights) are often considered Cadalso's best works, although they are stylistically and thematically different. Whereas ''Cartas marruecas'' is a rational, multi-perspectival examination of Spanish society through the eyes of a young Moroccan, ''Noches lúgubres'' is a short prose work centered on a mourning protagonist's desire to disinter his dead lover. It was inspired by the death of actress María Ignacia Ibáñez in Cadalso's arms in April 1771, when she was 26. This work, and a number of Cadalso's anguished lyrics, are considered antecedents of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

in Spain, if not fully Romantic in their own right. A three-volume edition of Cadalso's works appeared at

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in 1823. This was supplemented by the ''Obras inéditas'' (Paris, 1894) published by R. Foulch-Delbosc.

Death

Cadalso was killed at the

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, on 27 February 1782, just 15 days after being promoted to colonel. He has a tomb in Saint Mary the Crowned Church in San Roque.

References

* * O. N. V. Glendinning. ''Vida y obra de Cadalso". Madrid. Ed. Gredos, (1962), 239 pages. * Sebold, R.P. . ''Colonel Don José Cadalso ''. New York, Twayne Publ. (1971), 187 pages. * Sebold, Russell P. ''Cadalso: El primer romantico "europeo" de Espana''. Madrid: Ed. Gredos, (1974), 294 pages. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadalso y Vazquez, Jose 1741 births 1782 deaths Enlightenment philosophers Age of Enlightenment Spanish male writers People from Cádiz