Abel Sanchez is a novel written at the beginning of the 20th century by Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish author of Basque origin. I read the novel after reading “Viento del Sur” by Ian Gibson, who assured that the theme of this novel details a very common feature of Spanish society: the role of envy. It was a comment that explained many things to me, after five years in Spain, so I decided to read the novel. Unamuno previously wrote Niebla (Fog) in which the protagonist wants to commit suicide at the end of the novel, an action that is “impossible”, he explained to him…

A story of passion, Abel Sánchez is similar in style to Mist, but the relatively short story spans a lifetime and is written without too much detail; a simple and ordinary story. At first sight. It is about the life of Abel Sánchez and Joaquín Monegro, referring explicitly to the biblical parable of Abel and Cain. Both are friends since early childhood. On the first page the conflict is presented: he (Abel) is social, for whom people feel sympathy towards the outside, he lives on the street and Joaquín is the “nerd” (in modern terminology), who studies a lot and is unfriendly . The climax of the conflict that only Joaquín feels is when Able seduces Helena. Joaquín never managed to get her attention, but nevertheless becomes jealous of her when Abel starts seeing her (after asking her to model for him).

Joaquin’s “strategy in life” is to get revenge and develop as a successful doctor and incredibly skilled rhetorician. But while people appreciate his rhetoric – in a scene where he reveals the true beauty of one of Abel’s paintings – he can’t compete with his rival who isn’t really a rival from Abel’s point of view: “medicine too it’s an art”, and very useful, but what matters is what people (society) value most.

This is one of the themes of the work to question the real value of the artist (The artist as creator as in the previous novel Niebla) versus the work of the scientist and the role of reason. Joaquín senses that he should receive the honor for his contribution, but only Abel is rewarded. What makes Joaquín (more) jealous.

Another enigma is whether Abel intentionally kidnaps Helena (explicitly referring to the Greek Helena, since the H is not used in Spanish, a comment I borrowed from Félix de Azua, who presented the novel) or if Joaquín’s envy is rational and reasonable. This is the main theme of the story and deeper and more elaborate than the revenge element, which isn’t really a problem (in my opinion).

The story is full of envy as events continue; Abel’s son becomes Joaquin’s apprentice. Then it seems that the odds change, since Abel’s son values ​​Joaquín more than his father “he’s just selfish.” But as the story continues and they both become grandparents, however, Abel’s grandson doesn’t like Joaquin at all and the story, as well as Joaquin’s envy, reaches a climax.

Readers who appreciated Mist will also like this novel. It was revealing for me to see how an implicit knowledge about Spain is recognized: I really believe that Unamuno was ahead of society and understood it well. Envy plays a role in all societies, but more than the average in Spain it does; According to Unamuno, it is said that Envy is the Leprosy of Spain.

But in Spain there is much criticism of this point of view. In his prologue, Félix de Azua minimizes the potential influence of the novel on the understanding of Spanish society. “He was a man who did not leave his room in Paris”, he summarizes Azua Unamuno’s stay in France, showing that he looked more like Joaquín than Abel; “the story of passion”, he is biased by his own envy. It is a black and white story where Abel is white and Joaquín is black (Mo-“Black”?). One (another) interesting detail explained by de Azua, I did not realize was the following. Helena’s maiden name was Puig, indicating a Catalan origin and demonstrating that: “Unamuno’s intention was to find a name that had the same symbolic suggestion as Abel; the cold, selfish and aesthetic Helena had to be Catalan.” The rivalry in Spain continues, whether or not out of envy. Evaluate yourself… Or just read the novel as it is without all the possible interpretations. A true beauty.