Unamuno was one of the most influential Spanish writers of his generation. His stories, poems, and essays garnered an international readership, and were translated into many languages. Although he regarded himself as a poet above all else, Unamuno is remembered primarily as an important writer of essays and stories that grapple with religious and philosophical questioning in the modern world.

Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr: This Spanish Cathedral in Spain, circa 1935, sets a scene similar to the village portrayed in "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" [graphic graphicname="TIF00167386" orient="portrait" size="A"]

Unamuno's fictions are regarded primarily as stories of ideas, with a minimum focus on traditional elements of narrative. In his Introduction to Abel Sanchez and Other Stories (1956), in which "Saint Emmanuel the Good, Martyr" is published, Anthony Kerrigan described Unamuno's stories as

sparse, unstylistic, the bare bones of narratives; but then they are also...