Works
Villarroel had a poor opinion of his own knowledge of mathematics and science, a result of the low quality of education available in the Spain of his era. As he wrote: "I knew well my ignorance and blindness as I went groping down the alleyways of my profession. But I also knew that I was in the land of the blind, for Spain lay in the grip of a darkness so fearsome that in no school, college or university in any one of its cities was there an individual capable of lighting a lamp whereby one might seek out the elements of these sciences. In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is king" (quoted by Atkinson, page 24).
Today Villarroel is more famous as a writer. In twenty years he received more than 2,000 ducados per year. He was a prolific and popular author on numerous subjects with a style modelled on that of Quevedo whose Sueños (satirical visions of Hell) he imitated in his Sueños morales, visiones y visitas de Torres con D. Francisco de Quevedo por Madrid(1727–1751).
He wrote Los desdichados del mundo y la gloria (1737), He also wrote poems and plays, but his most important work is his picaresque account of his own life entitled Vida, ascendencia, nacimiento, crianza y aventuras del doctor don Diego de Torres Villarroel, (1743, with further additions later), divided into six chapters, each dealing with a decade of his life.
He also wrote scientific works such as Anatomía de lo visible e invisible de ambas esferas (1738) and works about the lives of saints (e.g. Vida de Sor Gregoria de Santa Teresa) and poets (Vida de Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo).
Villarroel was a favourite author of the young Jorge Luis Borges.
Read more about this topic: Diego De Torres Villarroel
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“On pragmatistic principles, if the hypothesis of God works satisfactorily in the widest sense of the word, it is true.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“That man’s best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature’s infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should make himself an imitation, this is the fact which Nature moans over, and deprecates beseechingly. Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals! is the song she sings through warbling birds, and whispering pines, and roaring waves, and screeching winds.”
—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)
“His works are not to be studied, but read with a swift satisfaction. Their flavor and gust is like what poets tell of the froth of wine, which can only be tasted once and hastily.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)