Pityusa

Both Pityusa (1907) and its author Jose María Llanas Aguilaniedo (1875-1921), are two key elements in the study the Spanish fin de siecle culture and decadentism. The novel orbits around the love triangle of the prostitute Pityusa, the weak aristocratic Nikko, and his uncle Tinny, a man of action past his prime. The three will live their relation in the Balearic island of Menorca, turned into an oppressive environment that stifles its inhabitants willpower. Narrated in a pictorial language the novel agglutinates some compelling issues that impregnated the Spanish culture at the turn of the XIX Century, namely feminity, sexual desire and the overwhelming presence of the medical discourse. Jose Maria Llanas Aguilaniedo has been locked within the small and rare authors pantheon, an injustice because his double stance as medical practitioner and writer turn his well written novels, articles and essays on aesthetics and criminology into very interesting testimonials of the Spanish fin de siècle society This edition, with a foreword and notes by Alba del Pozo Garcia, casts a light over the text's historical and cultural background while helping the modern reader enjoy the text.