El camino, published in 1950, is the third novel of Delibes and shows the author's ever renewed interest in perspectives on Man's struggle to understand his own nature in relation to the lives and events around himself. In his first novel, La sombra del cipres es alargada, published in 1948, the theme is pessimistic…. As though to counteract this unhappy determinism, Delibes' second novel, Aun es de dia, published in 1949, presents a gentle character of unbounded generosity and optimism, who has no material reason for being so, since his body is twisted, his surroundings depressing, and even the women he married evil. Thus the first two novels show the author's early, somewhat awkward efforts to portray first the destructive power of environment, and then the victory of Man's spirit over environment. Significantly, both books indicate Delibes' interest in the early formative years of his heroes.

El camino benefits greatly by...