Leopoldo Alas

Who was Leopoldo Alas?

Leopoldo García-Alas y Ureña, also known as Clarín, was an Spanish realist novelist born in Zamora. He died in Oviedo.

Alas spent his childhood living in León and Guadalajara, until he moved to Oviedo in 1865. There he studied Bachillerato and began his law studies. He lived in Madrid from 1871 to 1878, where he began his career as a journalist and he graduated with the thesis El Derecho y la Moralidad in 1878. He taught in Zaragoza from 1882 to 1883. In 1883 he returned to Oviedo to take up a position as professor of Roman law.

Above all, Clarín is the author of La Regenta, his masterpiece and one of the best novels of the 19th century. It is a long work, similar to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, one of its influences. Other influences included Naturalism and Krausism, a philosophical current which promoted the cultural and ethical regeneration of Spain.

La Regenta is special for its great wealth of characters and secondary stories, while the main character's description is left slightly unfocused and vague. On the other hand, the downfall of the provincial lady has place amidst two very diverse suitors: the most handsome man in the city and the cathedral's priest.