author
José Francisco de Isla
1703–1781
A sharp-witted Jesuit writer from 18th-century Spain, he became famous for turning satire into a way of criticizing bad preaching and literary excess. His best-known work, Fray Gerundio de Campazas, helped secure his place in Spanish literature.
2 Audiobooks
Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes (2 de 2)
by José Francisco de Isla
Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas, alias Zotes (1 de 2)
by José Francisco de Isla
About the author
Born in 1703 in Vidanes, León, José Francisco de Isla joined the Society of Jesus while still young and went on to build a reputation as both a preacher and a man of letters. He studied and taught within Jesuit institutions, and his writing mixed learning with humor in a way that made him widely noticed.
He is best remembered for Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas (usually shortened to Fray Gerundio), a satirical novel that mocked the ornate and empty style of some preachers of his day. The book was highly influential and controversial, and it remains the work most closely associated with his name.
Like many Spanish Jesuits, he was expelled from Spain in 1767 and spent his later years in Italy. He died in Bologna in 1781, leaving behind a reputation as an engaging satirist whose lively prose connected religious, literary, and comic traditions.