Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936) Galician novelist and playwright, evolved in style from the brio of the early Short Stories (Vol I in this series) to the luxuriance of these Sonatas --- the life and loves of his Don Juan-like avatar, the Marqués de Bradomín. There followed the straight-forward historical novel The Carlist War (Vol III) chronicling the horrors of Spain's 19th century ideological civil conflict. Valle's crowning achievement (illustration of esperpento, or nailing of truth through the grotesque) is The Iberian Arena (Vol IV), a choral novel touching on every aspect of Spanish society as it flays the follies and vices of the Court of Isabel II in 1868, the year of her overthrow. Spain's greatest political novel of the 20th century.