A masterpiece of 20th century Spanish literature, with which Valle-Inclán starts a grotesque cycle, harshly criticising the society of his time.
Magnum opus of Valle-Inclán's theatre, published in 1920, which started his grotesque literature (esperpento), which shows a new way of seeing the world, which distorts and deforms reality to show what is lying underneath.
Set in Madrid during his time, the protagonist is the poet Max Estrella, a miserable blind person. Valle-Inclán wanted to go beyond a simple anecdote - he wanted to reflect on the failure and death of a degraded writer, who became a parable of how impossible it is to live in a deformed, unjust and repressive state. Because of this it emerged as a harsh criticism of society back then.
In 1924 the author revised and re-edited the text, but the play was not put on until 1970.
