The Countess Emilia Pardo Bazan introduced the French naturalistic movement to Spain with The Burning Question (1881). While she recognized the excesses of naturalism in its exclusive concentration on the sordid aspects of life, she saw in it possibilities for directing the Spanish novel to social and political issues. The Son of the Bondwoman (Los Pasos de Ulloa, 1886), which deals with the degeneration of an aristocratic family, is naturalistic in subject and in its deterministic conclusion.
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