The Generation of '98

The catastrophic loss of Cuba and the Philippines in 1898 sent Spanish writers searching for the nation's soul in essays, novels, and a new philosophical fiction Unamuno called the 'nivola.' Three compact books run from Unamuno's shortest parable through Baroja's restless autobiographical anti-hero to Unamuno's own, stranger capstone.

1. 1
   San Manuel Bueno, Martyr

   Miguel de Unamuno · 1930

   Lvl 5100pp

   Unamuno's beloved village priest secretly doubts every doctrine he preaches, and keeps preaching anyway out of love for his parishioners: a novella-length crisis of faith, and the shortest door into the Generation.

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2. 2
   The Tree of Knowledge

   Pío Baroja · 1911

   Lvl 5320pp

   Baroja's restless young doctor drifts through Madrid's hospitals and cafes searching for a philosophy that actually holds up, and finds mostly disillusionment: existentialism before the word existed.

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3. 3
   Mist

   Miguel de Unamuno · 1914

   Lvl 6200pp

   The capstone: Unamuno's Augusto Pérez discovers he's a character in a novel and travels to Salamanca to confront his own author about it, metafiction as an argument with God conducted one step removed.

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