Manuel Bretón de los Herreros
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Manuel Bretón de los Herreros (19 December 1796 - 8 November 1873) was a Spanish dramatist, literary critic, poet, and journalist.
He was born near Logroño in what is now La Rioja province, Spain. At an early age, Bretón de los Herreros fought as a volunteer in the Peninsular War, against the French invaders and Joseph Bonaparte. After ten more years in the Army, he was charged with administrative duties in Játiva and Valencia. In 1840, he was first the head of the National Printing Press, then editor of the periodical Gaceta (from 1843).
In 1847, he was placed in charge of the National Library and lifetime secretary of the Academia Española (which he had joined in 1837). He translated several literary works, and wrote as many as 200 plays.
Bretón de los Herreros remained attached to Classicism, the poetry of Juan Meléndez Valdés and the theatric themes of Leandro Fernández de Moratín. Nevertheless, his commentary is directed at events in his lifetime, and he became close to quite different characters such as Mariano José de Larra and José de Espronceda.
[edit] Selected works
- Marcela o ¿Cuál de las tres? (1831)
- Muérete y verás (1837)
- La escuela del matrimonio (1852)
