Literary and artistic trials

In Literary and Artistic Trials Pedro Antonio de Alarcón shows an overview of nineteenth-century Spanish society, through his literature and his nobility. The background of unease and bitter nationalist apology of the author is surprising, who reveals the fissures of the project of modernity of Hispanic culture.

Discourse on Morality in Art

Gentlemen:
From the unforgettable speeches that, as perennial monuments, mark your successive entry into the Royal Spanish Academy, and whose exquisite workmanship I have returned to admire these days, seeking in it lessons and examples for my task today, it turns out that all of you, with coming accompanied by titles and merits that I lack, and to be in every extreme worthy of an investiture that you had so much to honor, you entered full of confusion, timidity and reverence in this literary Senate, temple of the laws of good saying, where the Heroes of Art guard and increase the rich treasure of the speech of Castile. Easily, then, you will guess the affections, much more vivid and pressing, the more natural and due, which stir my heart in this solemn act, and some of which, in reparation of justice, serve as punishment for the avilantez with which, abusing your indulgence, I claimed the undeserved honor of surnaming me your companion, when in reality I was to come here (why deny it?) to continue to be your disciple.
Much more I would say in this; But the polished terms and gallant phrases with which all of you, in tribulation analogous, not identical, to mine, expressed the same concepts, come to mind, and it would grieve me if, due to disadvantages of intelligence and style, the obligation of my thanks appeared today less eloquent and affectionate than yesterday the noble humility of your modesty. Let me be lawful, on the other hand, to define with ingenuity, and in the plain and ordinary language proper to my fondness for the novel of customs, the nature and nature of the mixed emotions felt by the lover of the Bellas Lettres when he passes from the status of writer by his own jurisdiction to the official category of individual of this illustrious Corporation, Or at least he will explain the concerns he experiences on this occasion who, like me, during a long and joyful literary student, has only camped for his respect.

Fragment of the work

Reference edition: Madrid, Imprenta de A. Pérez Dubrull, 1883.