The historical romances by Valentín de Llanos and Telesforo Trueba y Cosío: Between the influence of Walter Scott and the Spanish Liberalism

Abstract

Following the defeat of Napoleon’s troops during the Peninsular War (1808- 1814), King Ferdinand VII returned to power in Spain. The liberals who had supported the Constitution of 1812 clashed with the absolute monarchy of King Ferdinand, and its reestablishment of the Spanish Inquisition. As a result, many left Spain and found refuge in London, where they came into contact with English intellectual life. Among these men were Telesforo Trueba y Cosío and Valentín de Llanos, willing émigrés from the suppressive political atmosphere in Spain.

They arrived in England at the beginning of the 1820s, when Walter Scott was at the height of his popularity, after the publication of his Waverley Novels. These novels created a new form for the historical novel, which Trueba y Cosío and Llanos embraced. This thesis undertakes a comparative analysis between the historical romances that they published during the 1820s and 1830s and the novels written by Walter Scott. Departing from the idea of the historical novel as a genre of national self-definition, this thesis explores, alongside the narrative structure of the novels, how these writers used the conventions of the genre to reflect upon Spain’s national identity and history. It also considers how their condition of exile affected their use of the historical novel genre.

Throughout the critical analysis, this thesis demonstrates that Trueba y Cosío and Llanos adapted Scott’s model to Spanish historical materials. The main features of the Waverley Novels —the so-called “mediocre hero”, the portrayal of the historical characters and the use of narrative techniques from the picturesque, among others— are found in the studied novels. However, the thesis also identifies the main differences in the transposition of the Scottian model. While Walter Scott provides an objective view of historical conflicts and sought to integrate Scotland and England in the same national vision, Trueba and Llanos exclude certain social groups from their vision of Spain. Hence, they do not accept absolutists and the clergy as part of a new political order. In this sense, their narrative is less conciliatory.

This work seeks to fill the gap in the critical literature around the literary production of the Spanish exiles in London during the beginning of the nineteenth century. Moreover, it explores the dialogue established between the English and the Spanish literary traditions during an age of massive migration.