Peace in war

Peace, as Miguel de Unamuno y Hugo (1864–1936) wrote, grows out of the struggle for life, and war can be understood and justified in the heart of true and profound peace. These paradoxical words, at first glance, acquire meaning precisely in this novel, the first (1897) in the work of the famous Spanish writer and philosopher. The events that formed the basis of the plot were the last Carlist war, as well as, in particular, the siege of Bilbao, which the author himself experienced and remembered, while still a child. Hence the accuracy of the description of the life of ordinary Biscayans, their originality and worldview. But the conflict in the novel unfolds not only between the Carlists and the liberals, but also between the city and the countryside, between farmers and merchants, between religious and social rules and the impulses of the flesh. And above all this - the search for peace, and above all - with oneself