AZORIN (1874– ), Spanish novelist and critic. Born at Monovar (Alicante), Jose Martinez Ruiz, under the pseudonym which has completely eclipsed his name, has written stories of ancient Castile in El Alma Castellana (1600–z800) (1900), Los Pueblos (1904), and Castilla (1912) . After the three novels La Voluntad (1902), Antonio Azorin 0903), and Las Confesiones de un pequeno filoso f o (19o4), in which are set down the self revelations of an ordinary hero, Azorin turned to criticism, and Al Margen de los Cldsicos (1915), Rivas y Larra (1916), De Granada a Castelar (1922) reveal him as an independent judge with a fine sense of relative values.