From Azoteas to Dungeons : Spain as Archaeology of the Despotism in Alexander Dallas’s Novel Vargas (1822)

Abstract

Alexander Dallas, ex-combatant in the Peninsular War, wrote books on Spanish-related themes with great affection for Spanish life and culture. However, there was one limit to this admiration: the rivalry between the Protestants and Catholics. Dallas’s move into the Anglican clergy goes some way to explaining why in his last novel, Vargas, a Tale of Spain, published anonymously in 1822, his Hispanophilia gave way to immersion in the attitudes, opinions and central themes related to the so-called Black Legend. The evocation of customs and landscapes is thus wrapped in an argument from the sixteenth century, the Inquisition and religious superstitions assuming a protagonist role and flipping the way he approaches Spanish reality. This complex dialogue between Hispanophilia and Hispanophobia reveals their strong common foundation: condescension.