SOURCE: Ullman, Pierre L. “Larra's Preparliamentary Articles.” In Mariano de Larra and Spanish Political Rhetoric, pp. 65-100. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971.

In the following excerpt, Ullman maintains that as censorship was relaxed at the end of 1834, Larra's political criticism, often embedded within theatrical reviews, grew more strident.

The preceding chapter dealt with the political situation from Ferdinand's death to the opening of Cortes. Now we shall turn to Larra's production during this period. An immediate question in that respect is whether, as some scholars have felt, Figaro's writings betray a gradual disillusionment with Martínez. It seems to me that a thorough examination of the essays, with adequate knowledge of historical sources, would obviate such a conclusion. An increase in the essays' evident animosity should be attributed not so much to growing disillusionment as to a probable relaxation of censorship in the latter half of 1834. Yet this...