Rhymes and Legends

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer confessed to writing the «Introduction» of Rhymes and Legends (Rimas y leyendas), just two years before he died, «The treasure of tinsels and winks that fantasy has accumulated in the attics of the brain». So Rhymes and Legends gather poems and pros simply because they are all creatures of the same imagination that yearns to free itself to «sleep in peace». The influence in the modern imaginary of some poems of the Rhymes, like «The mountain of the souls», «The ray of the moon» or «The kiss», has been immense. For its part, the Legends are inscribed in the gothic literature of authors such as Hoffman and Poe, which meant a break with rationalism. In rescuing popular legends, romanticism gave a new meaning to the reviled superstitions. Why are we terrified by mysterious or fantastic events? They are signs of the supernatural, and since it is not possible to explain them rationally, it represents an overwhelming evidence of our limited ability to understand the world.

(Description has been translated into English, Book edition is in Spanish)