13 h 56 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How does a literature grow from epic songs into a world of rogues, knights, mystics and playwrights?
In A History of Spanish Literature, James Fitzmaurice-Kelly gives English readers a connected path through Spain’s writing. He begins with medieval poems and chronicles, including the Cantar de mio Cid, then follows the changes of the Renaissance. Fernando de Rojas’s Celestina helps mark a world of new forms and new rogues.
Miguel de Cervantes stands at the centre of this survey. Around him, Fitzmaurice-Kelly traces the rise of Spain’s great theatre, the weaker years of the eighteenth century and the nineteenth-century revival. He offers judgments as well as history, explaining what he values in each writer and showing how one age answers another.
What you’ll discover
- Roots in epic song Begin with the Cantar de mio Cid and the warrior at its heart.
- A Renaissance of change Explore Celestina as Spanish writers turn toward new forms and a wider world.
- Cervantes at the centre Meet the writer who anchors Fitzmaurice-Kelly’s account, guided by a scholar of his life.
- The stage comes forward Follow the rise of national drama through the theatre of Spain’s Golden Age.
- Decline and renewed colour Trace the passage from thinner literary years to Romanticism’s passion in poetry and drama.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love Don Quixote and its world, enjoy vivid portraits of writers and their feuds, or want a guide through Spanish poetry, drama and novels.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Spain's first great writers were Romans
- Arabic influence on Spanish verse was overstated
- Minstrels and French models shaped early poetry
- The Poem of the Cid is the first masterpiece
- Berceo and Alfonso the Learned build a literature
- The fourteenth century brings Ruiz, Manuel and Ayala
- The fifteenth century turns toward Italy and the novel
- Italian forms win and mystics and storytellers flourish
- Cervantes and Lope de Vega dominate the golden age
- Ornament, decline and revival close the story
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Geschichte der spanischen Literatur
by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly · 1898
Lope de Vega pours out hundreds of plays while Cervantes writes Don Quixote in this survey of Spain's letters.
Challenging10–20 hours to readDeutsch
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In short
What do we owe Spain? A French writer asked that question in print in the eighteenth century, and it caused an uproar.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Spain's first great writers were Romans
The first great voices from Spain wrote in Latin, as citizens of Rome. Seneca the Elder, Seneca the Younger, Lucan, Martial and Quintilian were all Spaniards. The author says their love of high rhetoric, harsh humor and clear judgment already shows the strengths and faults of later Spanish writing.
Church writers later carried literature forward. Prudentius came close to rhyme in his hymns, and Isidore of Seville gathered so much learning that he taught the whole West. The Goths, in the author's view, gave Spain nothing but ruin. Yet Theodulf, a Spanish bishop at the court of Charlemagne, wrote the hymn still sung on Palm Sunday.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 8 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1898
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 9 h 0 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James. A History of Spanish Literature. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-history-of-spanish-literature.
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, J. (2026). A history of Spanish literature. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-history-of-spanish-literature (Original work published 1898)
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James. A History of Spanish Literature. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-history-of-spanish-literature.
@book{fitzmauricekelly2026history,
author = {Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James},
title = {A History of Spanish Literature},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-history-of-spanish-literature},
note = {First published 1898}
}
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What is A History of Spanish Literature about?
It surveys Castilian writing through the nineteenth century, with an introduction tracing its antecedents back to Roman Spain. It follows poets, playwrights, novelists, chroniclers and mystics in order, with portraits of their lives and judgments of their best works.
Who wrote A History of Spanish Literature and when?
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, an English scholar who died in 1923, wrote it. It covers writers up to the close of the nineteenth century and gives most space to the age of Cervantes and Lope de Vega.
Why does the book leave out Catalan and Basque writing?
The author limits Spanish literature to Castilian, the language of Cervantes and Lope. He says Catalan is rich enough to deserve its own study, and he treats Basque as chiefly oral, with little written work.
The author
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly
1858–1923 · British scholar of Spanish literature
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly was a British scholar of Spanish language and literature. He was born in Glasgow in 1858 and died in 1923. He lived and worked in Britain, teaching Spanish at universities. He wrote A History of Spanish Literature, published in 1898, and other studies of Spanish writers.
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