Le ‘domaine’ alicantin de Valery Larbaud

Resumo

Valery Larbaud, as is well known, lived in Alicante – a city he considered his ‘home’ – from 1916 to 1920. Although some researchers thought it was a third-rate provincial town, Larbaud rubbed shoulders with intellectuals and artists who forged what has been called Alicante’s ‘Silver Age’. Our aim in this article is to highlight his relationships with these people: the economist Germán Bernácer and his brother Julio, a modernist poet, the composer Óscar Esplá, the painter Ramón Ferreres, and the writers Eduardo Irles and José Guardiola, among others. We will then go on to highlight Larbaud’s intellectual work, in addition to his translation of Butler, during his stay in Alicante; his initiatives for the translation in France of the Alicante novelist Gabriel Miró, whom he considered one of the best Spanish writers. We will go on to look at Larbaldian works – without neglecting his diary and his correspondence – to note the imprint that this city left on his texts, and we will conclude by mentioning the expressions of friendship and gratitude that appeared in the Alicantine press after our author’s death.