Rereading Larra: Macias´ illustrated edition (1886)

Abstract

In the present work I carry out the study of the seven illustrations that they acompany the drama Macías, of Mariano José de Larra, in the edition of his Obras Conpletas published in 1886 by the publishing house Montaner y Simón. From his analysis it is to be concluded that the prints not only enrich the text and they make it more attractive for the reader to whom they were destined, but they guide the reading, they anticipate contents and underline those that the illustrator, independently from the will of the playwright, considers to be more important. The iconic text, in interaction with the literary one, offers the reader of the end of the 19th century one of the most significant dramas of the romantic aesthetics.