The Spanish author Gabriel Miró Ferrer (1879-1930) was one of the outstanding prose stylists of the 20th century. His preferred form was the impressionistic vignette, which appealed to the senses rather than to the intellect.

Gabriel Miró Ferrer was born on July 28, 1879, in Alicante in the bright and sunny southeastern Mediterranean region of Spain. He attended the Jesuit school in Orihuela as a boarding student during the years 1886-1891, and he graduated from secondary school in 1896. Miró began studying law in Valencia in 1896, graduating in 1900.

In 1901 Miró married Clemencia Maignon, daughter of the French consul in Alicante, and later two daughters, Olympia and Clemencia, were born to them. His first important book was Del vivir (1904). In it he introduced the character Sigüenza (Miró himself) and also began to develop the sensuous and impressionistic descriptions for which he is remembered. His first...