SOURCE: Shaw, Donald L. “Unamuno: The Giant of the Generation.” In The Generation of 1898 in Spain, pp. 41-74. London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1975.

In the following essay, Shaw examines Unamuno's vital role in the Generation of 1898 and provides an overview of his fiction and poetry.

J. Herrero states categorically that Ganivet was ‘el primero entre los hombres de su generación en adoptar una actitud que caracterizará a los componentes de lo que llamamos la Generación del 98’.¹ This is in one way strictly true. The key-year for Ganivet was 1888, the year of España filosófica contemporánea, from which so much of the rest of his work stems. But this thesis was not published. Apart from one minor item, Ganivet did not break his silence until October 1895 when he began to send articles home from Antwerp. He only emerged as a national figure in 1897 with the publication...