Con la Iglesia hemos topado: Saturnino Calleja y la censura de cuentos infantiles

This article studies the relationship between children’s literature and religious censorship in Spain towards the end of the nineteenth century. The study focuses on the publishing house Saturnino Calleja—a milestone in the history of the book printing in Spain and Latin America—and, specifically, on the case of two short stories included in its catalogue that were forbidden and removed from the bookstores by the Diocese of Madrid: El príncipe Simplicio and a very culturally Peninsularized version of El soldadito de plomo. In addition to its literary analysis, this essay reflects on the possible reason that made the Spanish Diocese not only censor, but also remove from circulation two texts deeply anchored in the genre’s tradition.