Menéndez Pelayo y Pardo Bazán

The study of the human and literary relationship established between Menéndez Pelayo and Pardo Bazán reveals that both temperaments had not only a lot in common but also polemical frictions substantiated in two diverse realms: the formal or public, and the private one --the former being less controlled-- nowadays traceable through the collected letters. The historiographic mode in which they focused on the literary fact, particularly the novel, responds to approaches that fluctuated between historical erudition and diverse nuances of impressionism. By means of the rescue of a manuscript text written by the author of SAN FRANCISCO DE ASÍS, prefaced by the Cantabrian writer, the adherences to the master become visible while its deviations gain new impetus.