author
Tomás de Iriarte
1750–1791
A sharp, witty voice of the Spanish Enlightenment, he is best remembered for turning fables into lively literary arguments. His poems, plays, and translations helped bring neoclassical taste to 18th-century Spanish letters.
3 Audiobooks
Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain
by James Kennedy, Juan Bautista Arriaza, Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, José de Espronceda, Leandro Fernández de Moratín, José María Heredia, Tomás de Iriarte, Gaspar de Jovellanos, Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, Juan Meléndez Valdés, Manuel José Quintana, duque de Angel de Saavedra Rivas, José Zorrilla
Fábulas literarias
by Tomás de Iriarte
Literary Fables of Yriarte
by Tomás de Iriarte
About the author
Born in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, in 1750, Tomás de Iriarte became one of the notable literary figures of 18th-century Spain. He was educated in Madrid under the care of his uncle Juan de Iriarte, a scholar and royal librarian, and began working young as a translator of French plays for the royal theater.
Iriarte wrote poetry, drama, criticism, and translations, but he is especially known for his Literary Fables, a collection that used animals and sharp humor to comment on writers, readers, and artistic taste. His work is closely linked with the Spanish Enlightenment and neoclassicism, and he was known in his own time as an energetic and sometimes combative participant in literary debates.
He died in Madrid in 1791, just before his 41st birthday. Today he is remembered as a polished stylist whose fables remain his most widely recognized work, and as a writer who brought wit, discipline, and argument to the literary culture of his era.