SOURCE: Lowe, Jennifer. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Letter-Writer: Reflections On and In Unamuno's La Novela de Don Sandalio, Jugador de Ajedrez.” Forum for Modern Language Studies 29, no. 1 (January 1993): 62-74.

In the following essay, Lowe explores how Unamuno uses the epistolary form as a narrative method in La novela de Don Sandalio.

“Fue por fin mi amigo al campo a curarse de sus murrias, tal y como le aconsejé, y desde allí me escribe esto: ‘Mi querido Miguel: No puedo más; pasado manaña me vuelvo a la ciudad.’”¹ The “friend” allegedly writing to Unamuno from the countryside to announce his imminent return is a certain Rogelio and a lengthy letter attributed to him provides virtually the entire substance of Unamuno's article “Desde la soledad” (1904). There are in the opening lines of the article quoted above various points of contact, though not necessarily total accord, with the...