LARRA, Mariano Jose de, Spanish au thor: b. Madrid, 24 March 1809; d. 13 Feb. 1837. Educated partially in French and par tially in Spanish, he early displayed a tendency to compose in both languages and an inordinate love of study. At the age of 13 he had trans lated from French into Spanish the whole of Homer's 'Iliad' and had written a grammar of the Spanish language. After this he con tinued his education in Madrid where he studied literature, mathematics, ancient and modern languages and medicine. Dropping the latter in his third year, he began the study of law at the University of Valladolid which he also abandoned. He finally drifted into journalism and literature and became very active in polit ics. He wrote under a number of noms de plume, one of which, he soon made famous. His first popularity was won in a weekly publication entitled Pobrecito Hablador, in which he burlesqued very cleverly the so-. called bad habits and customs of the Madrid of his day. On the arrival of a more liberal policy toward the press on the death of Ferdi nand VII (20 Sept. 1833), he began to take a very active part in politics in which he soon became a noted journalistic contender, satir izing with great cleverness the follies and ab surdities of his time. Witty in the extreme, he never descended to the bitterness of the polit ical, party and personal vituperation of the writers of his day. All the world laughed with him and appreciated the truth of the pictures he painted and the humor of the situations, characters and incidents he depicted, in the best, most fluent and most happy of language which was in general devoid of partisanship and inspired with a spirit of fairness. This
fairness of mind and broadness of view in creased his popularity and extended the field of his readers. He also acquired a reputation as literary and dramatic critic inferior to that of no other contemporary writer in Spain. At the height of his fame he visited England, France and Portugal and everywhere he was received as a personage of the highest dis tinction (1835). The following year he visited Belgium and Germany, during which he was elected, in his absence, diputado to the Cortes.
Larra's family relations were unhappy, prob ably on account of his own lack of domestic qualities; and these were intensified by his relations for several years with a married woman with whom he appears to have been infatuated. Jealousy made his life miserable both at home and in his irregular marital rela tions, the latter of which becoming unbear able to the woman in the case, she turned her back on the poet; and Latta, in despera tion, took his own life. So great was his popularity that "all Madrid turned out to his funeral.° Among Larra's published works are 'El dogma de los hombres fibres) (transla tion); the following dramas, translated or adapted, 'Julia' ; 'Una imprudencia); 'Don Juan of Austria' ; 'Felipe' ; 'Roberto Dillon); 'Siempre' ; amor o la muerte); (Partir 'Un desafio); iUn rapto' (oper etta) ; 'El retrato de Shakespeare.' His orig inal drama, 'El conde de Fernan Gonzalez,' met with some success. A complete edition of Larra's works was published by Montaner and Simon, Barcelona.