Enrique Gil and Byron

This paper shows conclusively that Enrique Gil y Carrasco made deliberate use of Lord Byron's Don Juan for his historical novel, El Señor de Bembibre (Madrid, 1844). The most critical item to support this hypothesis is the aneurysm suffered both by Haidee and Beatriz, which discards almost definitely the possibility that the heroine of the Bierzo dies as a result of a tuberculosis. The context in which the authors have framed the lethal accident of their characters helps reaffirm the influence of the English poem on the Spanish novel: the unexpected arrival of their respective fathers for very different reasons (Haidee's father puts an end to her happiness, Beatriz's restores hers). Gil y Carrasco makes use of the anonymous Spanish translation, derived from the French one by Amadeo Pichot.