Félix María Serafín Sánchez de Samaniego y Zabala (12 October 1745 – 11 August 1801) was a Spanish
neoclassical fabulist
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral ...
.
Life
He was born and died in
Laguardia, Álava
Laguardia ( eu, Guardia) is a town and municipality located in the southern province of Álava, in the north of Spain; it belongs to the region of Rioja Alavesa, in the Basque Autonomous Community. It has a population of 1,500; but in the past it ...
, in the Basque Country, and was educated at
Valladolid
Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...
. A government appointment was secured for him by his uncle the Count de Peñaflorida.
His ''Fábulas'' (1781–1784), one hundred and fifty-seven in number, were originally written for the boys educated in the school founded by the Biscayan Society. In the first installment of his fables he admitted that he had taken
Tomás Iriarte for his model, a statement which proves that he had read Iriarte's fables in manuscript; he appears, however, to have resented their publication in 1782, and this led to a rancorous controversy between the former friends. Samaniego, however, was highly original in the matters of quiet humour and careless grace, and his popularity kept on growing.
References
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External links
The Spanish text of his nine books of fables online
Spanish poets
1745 births
1801 deaths
Fabulists
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