The House of Ulloa

(Paperback)

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A rich and unforgettable tragic-comic novel of sexual intrigue and political scheming in nineteenth-century Spain One of the greatest nineteenth-century Spanish novels, The House of Ulloa follows pure and pious Father Julian Alvarez, who is sent to a remote country estate to put the affairs of the marquis, an irresponsible libertine, in order. When he discovers moral decadence, cruelty and corruption at his new home, Julian's well-meaning but ineffectual attempts to prevent the fall of the House of Ulloa end in tragedy. Combining gothic elements with humour and social satire, The House of Ulloa is the finest achievement of Emilia Pardo Bazan, a prolific writer, feminist, traveller and intellectual, and one of the most dynamic figures of her time.

Reviews

An absolutely first-rate novelist [...] Bazn's genius lies in the way she mixes comedy, farce, realism and heightened-pitch hysteria with a dash of gothic [...] People may travel by donkey in this book, but it could have been written yesterday -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *
Pardo Bazn's mastery of social types and of the political currents that swirled around the liberal revolution are unsurpassed in Spanish literature ... O'Prey and Graves ... avoid awkward literalisms while nonetheless remaining true to the spirit of the original -- New Criterion

Author Bio

The Countess Emilia Pardo Bazan was born in 1851 and married at sixteen. After separating from her husband, she embarked on an affair with novelist Benito Perez Gald s. The House of Ulloa (1886) is generally considered as her masterpiece among her many literary works. Professor Paul O'Prey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton, London. Lucia Graves has translated works by Robert Graves, Anais Nin, Katherine Mansfield and Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, and is the author of a memoir, A Woman Unknown, and a novel, The Memory House.