Alarcon and Paris: El vértigo en el alma. Chronicles of the universal exhibition: “Viaje a París en 1855”

Abstract

In the present work, I analyse the first appearance of travel literature in Alarcon’s work: the columns he wrote from the Paris World’s fair, titled “Viaje a París en 1855”. These columns have barely been interpreted and have even gone unnoticed to some renowned writers such as Emilia Pardo Bazán or Azorín, who admired and studied Alarcon’s life’s work. On the one hand, we underline the major importance of these texts because they are Alarcon’s debut in the travel literature genre. Moreover, on the other hand, they mean the onset of travel literature triggered by XIXth century world’s fairs. We can already see Alarcon’s personal style and features, which will be developed in masterworks like Diario de un testigo de la guerra de África y De Madrid a Nápoles.