El horizonte crítico del 27: ensayos rescatados (1927-1932). Ed. David González Ramírez and Rafael Malpartida Tirado (review)

Ángel Valbuena Prat (1900-1977) needs no introduction for the countless readers of his indispensable Historia de la literatura española, a monumental chef d’oeuvre published in eight printings from 1937 to 1968. This notwithstanding, those readers would not easily recognize the young author of the essays compiled by the editors of El horizonte crítico del 27. As the editors demonstrate in their prólogo, the essays provide compelling evidence that would inject new meaning into a cliché: the Valbuena of the years 1927-32 is one of a kind—one, that is, whose critical acumen and vast erudition foreshadow the undisputed merits of his magnum opus, while exhibiting the distinctiveness of a talented intellectual, stylist, and poet.

The ensayos to which the subtitle refers amount to twenty-seven, eighteen written in Castilian and nine in Catalan. With the exception of the essays that are presented in a binary pattern—some subjects are discussed in pairs, with striking effect for comparative purposes—the arrangement of the selection by theme, genre, or some other nondescript criterion does not abide by the elusive “perfecta simetría” (47) the editors claim to follow. While dealing with not-so-precise categorizations, the editors are sagacious enough to gather in one cluster of four essays (149-88) Valbuena’s lucubrations, nothing short of inspirational, on a cosmic osmosis of sorts, operative throughout Europe, during the Romantic era, between the musical and belletristic universe. A concise review cannot do justice to the long list of authors and composers to whom the eminent critic devotes his choice insights. Suffice it to quote here the incisive statements, which sum up, quite ingeniously, the contribution of two prodigious exponents of the culture of the Western World: Goethe, who “viu entre jardí versallesc i música immensa decimonònica” (154-55), and Wagner, whose creative imagination “une lo musical a lo poético” (160).

Truly distinctive is the article entitled “Centenarios” (121-24), in which Valbuena single-handedly proposes the neglected Calderón, “gran simbolista y arquitecto del teatro,” as patron saint no less influential than is Góngora, unanimously revered as such by the members of the so-called Generation of 27. As we peruse such compact pieces as “Els inicis del barroc” (55–58) and “Camões y Góngora” (85-99), we learn to appreciate in Valbuena’s approach to literary criticism such salient characteristics as the condensed rhetoric, comparatist bent, and recurrent focusing on the radical shift in aesthetics determined by the transition from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century. In order to illustrate his cogent argumentation, Valbuena painstakingly defines the contrast between—to name an outstanding example—on the one hand, Garcilaso and Camões and, on the other hand, Góngora and Calderón. At every turn, Valbuena does not miss the chance to call attention to analogous contrasts to be perceived in juxtaposing, say, Phidias and Praxiteles, Sophocles and Euripides, the various artistic representations of Venus or Apollo and those of Mary Magdalene or Saint Sebastian. Valbuena never ceases to regale us with veritable pearls of wisdom, scattered throughout his protracted meditation on the multifarious avatars of the archetypal Don Juan and Doctor Faustus, evoked by generations of stellar authors: Berceo, Tirso de Molina, Mira de Amescua, Marlowe, Calderón, and, of course, Goethe, among others.

A certain je ne sais quoi holds us spellbound in the sway of the refreshing informality of Valbuena’s discourse—the editors allude to the “deliberado guiño de frescura” and “encantadora (y necesaria) provisionalidad” (14-15)—which, occasionally, as in “Comentarios de un viaje a Granada” (67-70), blossoms into serendipitous moments of sheer lyricism. In view of such paragons of poetic prose, Valbuena, after all, may lay just claim to being himself a worthy exponent of the aforementioned Generation, which includes such notables as...