About Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida, better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish Romantic poet and writer, also a playwright, literary columnist, and talented in drawing. He is one of the most important figures in Spanish literature, with some considering him the most read Spanish writer after Miguel de Cervantes. He adopted the alias of Bécquer as his brother Valeriano Bécquer, a painter, had done earlier. He was associated with the romanticism and post-romanticism movements and wrote while realism enjoyed success in Spain. He was moderately well-known during his life, but it was after his death that most of his works were published. His best-known works are the Rhymes and the Legends, usually published together as Rimas y leyendas. These poems and tales are essential to studying Spanish literature and common reading for high-school students in Spanish-speaking countries. At that time, Bécquer worked intensively on his belated project Historia de los templos de España (History of Spain's temples), the first volume of which saw the light of day in 1857. Gustavo and Valeriano became from this point very close friends, and they both influenced each other greatly throughout their lives. It was around this time, between 1857 and 1858, that Bécquer became ill, and was left to the care of his brother and friends.
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