Alas y Ureña, Leopoldo

Alas y Ureña, Leopoldo (1852-1901), Spanish writer, who used the pseudonym Clarín (“bugle”). As a noted reviewer of books, he is considered one of Spain's most influential literary critics of the late 19th century. His fiction, satirizing provincial and religious attitudes, has been increasingly praised. The novel La regenta (The Regent's Wife, 1884-1885), often compared to Madame Bovary, by the French novelist Gustave Flaubert, which it resembles, and Su único hijo (1890, His Only Son) are considered the two greatest Spanish Naturalist novels of the century.