James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

“ It would be difficult to maintain that Fernán Caballero was a great literary artist, but it is certain that she was a born teller of stories and that she has a graceful style very suitable to her purpose. ”

“ Arrón was appointed consul in Australia, engaged in business enterprises and made money; but unfortunate speculations drove him to commit suicide in 1859. Ten years earlier the name of Fernán Caballero became famous in Spain as the author of La Gaviola. The writer had already published in German an anonymous romance, Sola (1840) , and curiously enough the original draft of La Gaviota was written in French. This novel, translated into Spanish by José Joaquín de Mora, appeared as the feuilleton of El Heraldo (1849) , and was received with marked favour. ”

“ Educated principally at Hamburg, she visited Spain in 1815, and, unfortunately for herself, in 1816 married Antonio Planells y Bardaxi, an infantry captain of bad character. In the following year Planells was killed in action, and in 1822 the young widow married Francisco Ruiz del Arco, marqués de Arco Hermoso, an officer in one of the Spanish household regiments. Upon the death of Arco Hermoso in 1835, the marquesa found herself in straitened circumstances, and in less than two years she married Antonio Arrón de Ayala, a man considerably her junior. ”