SOURCE: "Illusion and the Don Juan Theme in Pardo Bazán's Cuentos de amor," in Hispanic Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1980, pp. 67-71.

In the essay below, Feeny explores the use of a Don Juan figure who does not take advantage of his prey in three of Pardo Bazán's short stories.

Within Pardo Bazán's collection of short stories, Cuentos de amor, we find three very brief tales with essentially the same theme: the failure of a Don Juan figure to take advantage of possible prey. Despite this similarity of theme, in her handling of this material the author projects two rather different images of herself. Here and elsewhere in her fiction, Pardo Bazán appears torn between the tendency to approach her characters' trials and grief sentimentally and her penchant to treat them with utmost detachment and even irony. Possibly both attitudes, despite their differences, are genuine facets...