SOURCE: Ilie, Paul. “Larra's Nightmare.” Revista Hispanica Moderna 38, no. 4 (1974-75): 153-66.

In the following essay, Ilie examines Larra's work in terms of its aesthetic quality, which he describes as “grotesque.”

With increasing exaggeration, Larra is becoming the hero of modern Leftist scholarship. His reputation reflects growing idealization both in the literary world and in some scholarly circles.¹ When writers like Azorín and Baroja marched to Larra's graveside and paid homage to his memory in 1901, everyone understood that a group of intense young men were eager to find a hero in their moment of need. But even as they fantasied the impassioned Larra as the supreme symbol of national tragedy, they recognized and spoke of his paradoxes and faults. Then later, during the Civil War, Communist Party member Cernuda wrote a commemorative poem on the anniversary of Larra's death in 1937, speaking only of his virtues and using them...