biography
| name: |
Moguel y Urquiza, Juan Antonio
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pronunciation:
[mohghel ee oorkhee
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1745–1804)
|
| biography:
| Basque novelist and priest, born in Eibar, Guipúzcoa, N Spain. He scarcely moved from his parish throughout his lifetime, befriended many refugee French priests, and seems to have been an ‘afrancesado’ at heart. He translated the Pensées of Pascal into Basque. His Peru Abarca (1955) is perhaps the most successful novel in Basque, first published with a Castilian translation in Euskalzale 3 (1899), though known in manuscript much earlier. It is composed of a series of dialogues, its contrasting characters being a Basque country recluse of undeviating virtue and a jovial, often wayward, street barber called Maisu Juan. Though the work's intention was moral, Moguel gives much incidental information on contemporary language, life, and manners in vigorous Basque. His niece, Vicenta Antonia (1782–1854), was a fabulist, and his nephew, Juan José (1781–1849), wrote an important work of edification in the Vizcayan dialect, Baserritar nequezaleentzaco escolia edo icasbidiac (1816). |
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