Jacinto Benavente y Martínez (August 12, 1866 – July 14, 1954) was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922.

Born in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

, the son of a celebrated pediatrician, he returned drama to reality by way of social criticism: declamatory verse giving way to prose, melodrama to comedy, formula to experience, impulsive action to dialogue and the play of minds. Benavente showed a preoccupation with aesthetics and later with ethics.

A liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 monarchist and a critic of Socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

, he was a reluctant supporter of the Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 regime as the only viable alternative to what he considered the disastrous republican experiment of 1931-1936. Benavente died in Aldeaencabo de Escalona (Toledo

Toledo (province)

Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila....

) at the age of 87. He never married. According to many sources, he was homosexual.

Principal works

Jacinto Benavente wrote 172 works. The most important works are:

• Los intereses creados (1907), comedy involving situations similar to those found in the Commedia dell'arte
  Commedia dell'arte
  Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
  
  ; it is Benavente's most famous and often performed work. It has been translated as The Bonds of Interest.
• Rosas de otoño (1905), sentimental comedy.
• Señora ama (1908), penetrante estudio psicológico de una mujer asediada por los celos.
• La malquerida (1913), drama.
• La ciudad alegre y confiada (1916), continuation from Los intereses creados.
• Campo de armiño (1916)
• Lecciones de buen amor (1924)
• La mariposa que voló sobre el mar (1926)
• Pepa Doncel (1928)
• Vidas cruzadas (1929)
• Aves y pájaros (1940)
• La honradez de la cerradura (1942)
• La infanzona (1945)
• Titania (1946)
• La infanzona (1947)
• Abdicación (1948)
• Ha llegado Don Juan (1952)
• El alfiler en la boca (1954)

External links

• Works by Jacinto Benavente
• Biography and bibliography at the Books and Writers website
• Biography at the Nobel Prize official website
• Biography and bibliography at Noble-Winners.com (unofficial) website
• Brief article in the Columbia Encyclopedia Online
• Encyclopedia of World Biography article, reproduced at BookRags.com