BALTASAR GRACIÁN (1647)

Philosopher and writer known as the leading Spanish exponent of conceptismo, a style of dealing with ideas that involves the use of terse and subtle displays of exaggerated wit.

After studying at Calatayud and Zaragoza he entered the Jesuit order at the age of 18, later becoming rector of the Jesuit college at Tarragona.

His early works -El héroe (1637, The Hero), El discreto (1646, The Compleat Gentleman) and El oráculo manual y arte de prudencia (1647, the Oracle)- were largely efforts to educate people in the ethics of worldly life.

His literary ideas on conceptismo and the art of conceited writing (writing that continually shocks the reader by the use of startling metaphor) were clearly set forth in Agudeza y arte de ingenio (1642, Subtlety and the Art of Genius).

In defiance of his superiors he published pseudonymously El criticón (1651, The Critick) a three-part philosophical novel considered by the 19th-century German pessimistic philosopher Schopenhauer one of the most important books ever written. In it he examined society from the standpoint of a savage and gave the clearest statement of his pessimistic philosophy with its emphasis on will power and struggle.

He died in Tarazona, 6 december 1658.