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José García de Villalta (Seville, 1801–Athens, 1846) was a writer, journalist, playwright and translator, and a distinctive figure of Spanish romantic liberalism. His London exile, begun after the absolutist reaction, brought him into direct contact with British literature and the Spanish émigré community.

Translator, journalist and novelist

His intellectual activity combined creation with cultural mediation. He translated Washington Irving and Victor Hugo, participated in journalistic ventures and cultivated historical theatre. That European experience explains the ease with which he assimilated the techniques of historical fiction and adapted them to Spanish conflicts.

El golpe en vago

Published in 1835, El golpe en vago sets a romantic, political and anticlerical intrigue in Andalusia in 1767. The “alchemists’” conspiracy allows the past to be read as an allegory of contemporary ideological struggles. The novel combines adventure, Andalusian costumbrismo and liberal polemic.

Other works

• El astrólogo de Valladolid (1839), a historical comedy in verse.
• Los amores de 1790 (1837), a historical comedy.
• Translations of Washington Irving and Victor Hugo, essential to the circulation of European romanticism in Spain.

Sources

See the Real Academia de la Historia biography and the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes catalogue.