References
- The only dates actually mentioned in the novel are 1804, 1898, 1901, and 1904. The approximate dates of birth must be calculated by information given about the passage of time in the novel.
- Miró mentioned Carlyle in the lecture he delivered at the banquet in honor of the “Cuento Semanal” prize for “Nómada” in 1908. The reference to Carlyle is phrased in such a way as to indicate at least a familiarity with the complete contents of Carlyle's On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History: “‘He de pensar mucho en un heroismo que olvidó el gran inglés: Virtud santa de llaneza de generosidad, por un hermano que vive en apartamiento. Quoted in lan MacDonald, Gabriel Miró: His Private Library and Literary Background (London: Tamesis, 1975), p. 156.
- I am grateful to Brian J. Dendle for bringing to my attention the poem by Salvador Rueda and Miro's personal involvement in Rueda's travel to Alcoy. It is entirely possible that the poem, which exalts the genious of technology, inspired Miro to parody the possibilities of modern technology in El abuelo del rey. Ian MacDonald in a paper entitled “El abuelo del rey and the Politics of Spain” read at the meetings of the Modem Language Association in 1986 makes the association Serosca-Alcoy. To my knowledge this paper has not been published
- Carlyle , Thomas . 1859 . “Signs of the Times,”. ” . In Critical and Miscellaneous Essays 189 Boston : Phillips, Campson Co. . The essay was originally published in the Edinburgh Review in 1829
- Miró , Gabriel . 1929 . El abuelo del rey 12 20 Madrid : Biblioteca Nueva. . All references to this work are from the same edition
- Márquez-Villanueva , Francisco . 1995 . “Sobre fuentes y estructura de El abuelo del rey,” . NRFH , 24 : 472 has noted that Pepe Rey of Galdós's Doña Perfecta is also an engineer and may have served as Miro's model. Certainly the situation is similar; a young man with a modem, scientific outlook attempts to live in a small Spanish town where tradition is firmly entrenched, but the similarity ends there. The trajectory of Pepe Rey's stay in Orbajosa assumes the proportions of tragedy, while Agustín III's mock heroship in Serosca hovers between parody and irony
- I borrow the metaphor from Leo Marx . 1964 . The Machine in the Garden Oxford University Press. .
- Carlyle also contrasts love and machines in “The Signs of the Times.”
- Carlyle , Thomas . 1967 . On Heroes, Hero Worship and the Heroic in History 311 London : Dent. .