Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (1864-1936) was a Spanish novelist, poet and essayist. He lived during a difficult time time for both Spain and Europe in general fact that was reflected in some of his works. His production was extensive and quite interesting. Some of the works that stand out from the rest are Vida de Don Quixote and Sancho, Abel Sánchez and Cómo se Hace una Novela. 

There is also Niebla which Unamuno insisted in calling a nivola to differentiate it from the standard concept of what a novel is. Really when I read it at first I could not see the difference between one and the other though I must say Niebla is a stroke of genius. This work revolves around the life of a young and healthy man called Augusto who falls in love with a girl called Eugenia but is not really corresponded because she is in love with another man. Augusto tries to court Eugenia sometimes opening his heart to her and sometimes helping her with money. In despair Augusto proposes to Eugenia and to his surprise she accepts though sometime before the wedding she leaves him a letter telling Augusto she is going away with her real love. Augusto then decides to commit suicide but before that he consults none other  Unamuno himself who has written a paper on the topic of suicide.  Then the author and his creation converse and Unamuno tries to let Augusto see the futility of his actions revealing him that he is not real but a figment of Unamuno´s imagination. In his resistance Augusto counterargues that Unamuno himself might be just a character in another work probably someone's dream. Augusto eventually leaves Unamuno and we are told he is dead though we never know the real cause of his death.
This irruption of our reality in the reality of Niebla is what I found appealing about this work. The rest was just like another story. The character of Augusto is given a priviledge very few others have but it is a priviledge he does not enjoy at all. Really everything that came before in the story is a preparation for the reader, not Augusto, to be shown a philosophical game that was exceptionally staged. Unamuno gave us a book (maybe that was why he insisted in treating her as a different kind ofwork and not a novel)  that someohow trascends time and could easily fit in the productions of our time and not Unamuno´s.
A must-read, a novel... a nivola that stands among the classics of universal literature.