SOURCE: Sieburth, Renée. “Commentary on Azorín's ‘La casa cerrada’.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 3, no. 3 (spring 1979): 291-96.

In the following essay, Sieburth provides a reading of “La casa cerrada” in order to gain insight into Azorín's central thematic concerns.

Azorín's Castilla (Madrid, 1912) is a collection of short texts in which the particular concerns of the author find consummate expression. Both subtlety and intensity of emotion inform its pages as story after story tells of the fleeting quality of time, indulges in the sentimental evocation of the past, and even proposes the idea that time may well be cyclical, carrying with it sparks, as it were, of great moments long past. These are then fused with the author's nostalgia for the spirit of Spain's Golden Age. In a prefatory note to the book, Azorín tells us that “… una preocupación por el poder...