THE RELIGIOUS CONTENT OF PARDO BAZÁN'S LA SIRENA NEGRA

Porfirio Sánchez's article 'La dualidad mística en La sirena negra de Pardo Bazán' is the first attempt at a detailed consideration of the question of mysticism in Pardo Bazán's novels. That the usual critical division between an early 'naturalist' and a later 'spiritualist' phase in Pardo Bazán's work is an oversimplification is emphasized by Dr Sánchez who, despite a curious suggestion that Julián and Gabriel are representatives of mysticism, is right in pointing to the spiritual content of Los pazos de Ulloa (1886) and La madre naturaleza (1887). Between the writing of these two novels, Pardo Bazán had written on the Russian novelists whose influence was a major factor in the Catholic revival in literature which took place in France in the 1880s and 1890s and which Pardo Bazán felt herself and other Spanish novelists to be involved in.