Novelas y desengaños amorosos

Despite being the most famous author of the Spanish seventeenth century, the biography of María de Zayas has always resisted being established, and attempts to positively identify her have been in vain. In the introduction to this edition, Rosa Navarro Durán proposes the prolific writer Alonso de Castillo Solórzano as a "great inventor" of the character, providing numerous arguments. Coming from the "Amorous and exemplary novels" and the "Desengaños amorosos" published under the name of María de Zayas, the selection presented offers an eloquent sample of some literary pieces that not only continue to provide a tasty reading, but also His defense of the education of women, his attacks against men's attitudes towards them, the free treatment of sexuality in the context of the time, as well as the claim of their importance and their capacities, are a milestone in the history of the female condition in Europe.