SOURCE: Kulp-Hill, Kathleen. “Follas novas (New Leaves).” In Rosalía de Castro, pp. 52-76. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.

In the following essay, the critic provides an examination of Castro's second collection of Galician verse.

From 1863 to 1880, Rosalía produced several works in prose. A short story in Galician, “Conto gallego” (“Galician Tale”), was written in 1863, but was not published until 1923.¹ This is her only prose piece in dialect (except for the prefaces to the two books of poetry in Galician) and may have been intended as part of a collection of tales which she never compiled. In 1866, two prose pieces, Ruinas (Ruins), a novelette, and El cadiceño (The Man from Cádiz),a satirical sketch, appeared, and an article, “Las literatas” (“Literary Women”), was published in Almanaque de Galicia, Lugo. Her most ambitious novel, El caballero de las botas azules (The Gentleman of the Blue Boots), came out...