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Gabriel Francisco Miro Ferrer was born on July 28th 1879, in Alicante on the Costa Blanca. Brought up in the Castilian-speaking Alicante, Miro was sent away to school in nearby Orihela, aged eight. The Jesuit Colegio de Santo Domingo would become the "Jesus" in The Leper Bishop. Miro studied Law, first a the University of Valencia, then at Granada, from which he graduated in 1900. He married in 1901, at the age of 22, and in that same year published his first novel, La mujer de Ojeda. The Leper Bishop was published in December 1926, when Miro was a grandfather, and he died not long afterwards, in May 1930, of peritonitis. The Leper Bishop (El obispo leproso) follows the story (begun in Our Father San Daniel) of a boy, Pablo, who is sent to a Jesuit school - a place where an extremist version of Catholicism is inflicted on its pupils. The novel portrays the struggle between innocence and evil, which, by the end of the book, is tempered by understanding. Miro has traditionally been seen as a writer difficult or impossible to translate, with very few of his works available in English. It is hoped that this edition will bring this lyrical writer's work to a wider audience.

This book offers a comprehensive account of modern Spanish culture, tracing its dramatic and often unexpected development from its beginnings after the Revolution of 1868 to the present day. Specially-commissioned essays by leading experts provide analyses of the historical and political background of modern Spain, the culture of the major autonomous regions (notably Castile, Catalonia, and the Basque Country), and the country's literature: narrative, poetry, theatre and the essay. Spain's recent development is divided into three main phases: from 1868 to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War; the period of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco; and the post-Franco arrival of democracy. The concept of 'Spanish culture' is investigated, and there are studies of Spanish painting and sculpture, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and the modern media. A chronology and guides to further reading are provided, making the volume an invaluable introduction to the politics, literature and culture of modern Spain.

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