Emilia Pardo Bazán, chronicler in Paris (1889)

Abstract

This paper is a thorough study of Al pie de la Torre Eiffel and Por Francia y por Alemania, by Emilia Pardo Bazán. These two works were published after her trip to Paris, as a reporter of the Universal Exhibition of 1889. They reflect many of the characteristics of her literature: eclecticism, autobiographical content, subjective and intimate approach, social denunciation, etc. Although they have never been studied by specialised critics, they contribute to know better the writer’s mentality and also understand the ideological evolution of such an outstanding thinker. They are especially appealing in that they are written in the decade previous to the 98 disaster, when a widespread awareness of national decline started to raise in Spain.