{"title":"Books by Miguel de Unamuno","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9789358593099","title":"Tragic Sense Of Life","description":"\"Tragic Sense of Life,\" by Unamuno grapples with the existential dilemmas faced by individuals in their search for meaning and their confrontation with mortality. He examines the tension between reason and faith, highlighting the human yearning for transcendence and the struggle to find purpose in an inherently uncertain world. \"Tragic Sense of Life,\" conveys the overarching theme of the work-that life is inherently tragic and characterized by the struggle to reconcile our finite existence with the infinite yearnings of the human spirit. \"Tragic Sense of Life\" remains a highly influential philosophical work, known for its penetrating insights into the complexities of the human experience. Unamuno's introspective examination of faith, reason, and the relentless pursuit of meaning has resonated with readers across generations, offering a profound exploration of the human condition. For those seeking a deep and contemplative exploration of life's fundamental questions, \"Tragic Sense of Life\" stands as a timeless masterpiece. Prepare to be intellectually and emotionally engaged as you navigate the profound philosophical terrain of Unamuno's remarkable work.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56310073753973,"sku":"9789358593099","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9789358593099_62858458-1df1-4bbb-8f13-3c639931f98f.jpg?v=1786032197"},{"product_id":"tragic-sense-of-life","title":"Tragic Sense of Life","description":"The acknowledged masterpiece of one of Spain's most influential thinkers. Between despair and the desire for something better, Unamuno finds that \"saving incertitude\" that alone can console us. Dynamic appraisal of man's faith in God and in himself.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481509896565,"sku":"9780486202570","price":19.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780486202570.jpg?v=1786089776"},{"product_id":"niebla","title":"Niebla","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492326121845,"sku":"9788408259794","price":20.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"fog","title":"Fog","description":"\u003ci\u003eFog\u003c\/i\u003e is a fresh new translation of the Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno's \u003ci\u003eNiebla\u003c\/i\u003e, first published in 1914. An early example of Modernism's challenge to the conventions of nineteenth-century realist fiction, Fog shocked critics but delighted readers with its formal experimentation and existential themes. This revolutionary novel anticipates the work of Sartre, Borges, Pirandello, Nabokov, Calvino, and Vonnegut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe novel's central character, Augusto, is a pampered, aimless young man who falls in love with Eugenia, a woman he randomly spots on the street. Augusto's absurd infatuation offers an irresistible target for the philosophical ruminations of Unamuno's characters, including Eugenia's guardian-aunt and \"\"theoretical anarchist\"\" uncle, Augusto's comical servants, and his best friend, Victor, an aspiring writer who introduces him to a new, groundbreaking type of fiction. In a desperate moment, Augusto consults his creator about his fate, arguing with Unamuno about what it means to be \"\"real.\"\" Even Augusto's dog, Orfeo, offers his canine point of view, reflecting on the meaning of life and delivering his master's funeral oration.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFog\u003c\/i\u003e is a comedy, a tragic love story, a work of metafiction, and a novel of ideas. After more than a century, Unamuno's classic novel still moves us, makes us laugh, and invites us to question our assumptions about literature, relationships, and mortality.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57680080503157,"sku":"9780810135369","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780810135369.jpg?v=1792423082"},{"product_id":"peace-in-war","title":"Peace in War","description":"The first and most traditionally realistic of Unamuno’s novelsThis volume presents an authoritative English translation of Miguel de Unamuno’s first novel, Paz en la guerra (1897). The book draws heavily on the author’s childhood memories of the siege of the Basque city of Bilbao in 1874. Unamuno, the great Spanish forerunner of existentialism, portrays a collective hero—the humble citizens of the bombarded city, whose daily lives are disrupted by historical forces beyond their control or understanding. He mingles these fictional characters with the generals and politicians of mid-nineteenth-century Spain, participants in the struggle between the conservative and traditionalist supporters of the Pretender Don Carlos and the liberal central government in Madrid. His novel gives vivid life to the arguments he presented in a series of essays in 1895, En torno al casticismo (“On Authentic Tradition”). In these essays, he urged his fellow citizens to abandon the ideologies and dogmatism that divided the nation—the oversimplified slogans that lead to war—and to seek instead the unity to be found in their common mortality.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680229630325,"sku":"9780691298122","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682776850805,"sku":"9780691298139","price":84.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-private-world","title":"The Private World","description":"Illuminating selections from Unamuno’s diary and letters that chronicle his profound religious, social, and political evolutionThese selections from the diary and letters of Miguel de Unamuno are deeply personal and compelling expressions of the spiritual life of the great Spanish writer and philosopher. The Intimate Diary of his religious crisis of 1897 records the rekindling of a faith abandoned during his university years. Confronted by the illness of one of his children, he underwent a period of agony at the end of which he accepted the necessity of grappling with the central issue of his subsequent work: the existence of God and the fate of man after death. The selected letters are an account not only of the upheavals of Unamuno’s spiritual life but of his reactions to the shocks of history, revealing a spirit in almost constant turmoil—his passionate struggle to understand himself as writer, homo religiosus, political being, university professor and rector, and husband and father. Both sections of the book reflect not only his spiritual life but his richly stocked mind. He read widely in the Iberian languages and in all the major languages of Western Europe.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680230187381,"sku":"9780691298153","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682581553525,"sku":"9780691298160","price":68.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"our-lord-don-quixote","title":"Our Lord Don Quixote","description":"An illuminating collection of Unamuno’s writings on Don QuixoteMiguel de Unamuno was, in the words of a European contemporary, “the living Spaniard of most importance to Europe, and probably the most important Spaniard that has lived since Goya.” An American critic, John A. Mackay, wrote: “In his emphasis on individuality, passion and action, and his supreme contempt of sociology, Unamuno resembles Nietzsche. The prologue to his Life of Don Quixote, in which he sounds a clarion challenge to heroic mystic action, is perhaps the most incandescent piece of prose-writing in contemporary literature.” Fittingly, this volume opens with The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho, first published in 1905. Unamuno called his book “a free and personal exegesis” on Cervantes’s novel, “in which I do not pretend to discover the meaning Cervantes aimed to impart to his work, but only the meaning which I myself give it.” Sixteen essays on diverse aspects of the Quixote motif make up the second part of the volume.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680230941045,"sku":"9780691298184","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682705973621,"sku":"9780691298191","price":84.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-tragic-sense-of-life-in-men-and-nations","title":"The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations","description":"An authoritative English edition of Unamuno’s influential meditation on faith, mortality, and the human condition“The greater part of my work has been to disquiet my neighbors, to stir up the sediment of their hearts, to sore anguish in them, if possible.”—Miguel de UnamunoUnamuno expressed the anguish of modern man in his concept of the Tragic Sense of Life, the continual struggle within the “man of flesh and blood” between the dictates of reason and the demands of his own heart. Del sentimento trágico, his acknowledged masterpiece, was first published in 1913 and established itself as a classic of modern Spanish literature and a foundational precursor to existentialist thought. This translation captures the raw passion of Unamuno’s original Spanish text, and the extensive notes draw directly from Unamuno’s library at Salamanca, using the books he consulted and annotated in writing The Tragic Sense of Life.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680231530869,"sku":"9780691298214","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682580668789,"sku":"9780691298221","price":84.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"the-agony-of-christianity-and-essays-on-faith","title":"The Agony of Christianity and Essays on Faith","description":"A luminous collection of Unamuno’s writings on Christianity and faithThis volume brings together Miguel de Unamuno’s long essay on Christianity as a state of agony—The Agony of Christianity, written in exile in Paris in 1925—with nine essays on related themes, including “Nicodemus the Pharisee,” “Faith,” and “What Is Truth?” Continual protest against the finality of death is the essence of Unamuno’s “agony,” a condition akin to existentialist despair. Refusing both dogmatic certainty and philosophical resignation, he portrays the longing for immortality in the face of doubt as the defining drama of human existence and the wellspring of religious consciousness.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680232317301,"sku":"9780691298245","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682861785461,"sku":"9780691298252","price":62.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"novela-nivola","title":"Novela\/Nivola","description":"Three innovative works that challenge novelistic conventions and blur the lines between characters and their authorThe three remarkable pieces of fiction included in this volume are not so much novelas, novels, as nivolas, a form invented by Unamuno. Reflecting the author’s rejection of strict classification, nivolas have no plot; or rather, their plot is predestined but unknown to the author—it develops as it goes along, formulated by the characters themselves. The first nivola, Mist, anticipates by seven years Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. In it, the central character rebels, turning on Unamuno, his maker, and proclaiming that if he must die then so must his author. In the second nivola, Abel Sánchez, the story is told of Joaquin, who feverishly envies the unfairly favored Abel his easy fame and chance for immortality through his painting. The protagonist of the third nivola, How to Make a Novel, is fatally attracted to a book in which he reads: “When the reader comes to the end of this painful story he will die with me.”","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680233136501,"sku":"9780691298276","price":38.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682566807925,"sku":"9780691298283","price":84.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"ficciones-2","title":"Ficciones","description":"A collection that showcases Unamuno’s versatility as a philosopher, essayist, and storytellerUnwilling to be bound by the categories of religion, Miguel de Unamuno also rejected the laws that distinguish one literary genre from another. Thus, some of his finest essays are stories and vice versa. Included in this volume are four stories—Tía Tula; The Novel of Don Sandalio, Chess Player; The Madness of Doctor Montarco; and Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr—and the play The Other. Tía Tula (“Aunt Tula”) describes the dilemma of a virgin mother caught between duty and fidelity to self. Don Sandalio is a chess player without past or present except when he concentrates on his game. The story of Doctor Montarco contains one of Unamuno’s earliest answers to critics who wished to confine him to a party and deny him the freedom to be a whole man. And Saint Manuel Bueno is the nonbeliever who will not use his truth to disturb public peace and holds to orthodox morality while rejecting accepted religion. In the play The Other, Unamuno explores the problem of individual identity.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57680233857397,"sku":"9780691298306","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57682575851893,"sku":"9780691298313","price":62.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-miguel-de-unamuno.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}