Jacinto Benavente y Martínez (August 12, 1866 – July 14, 1954) was one of the foremost Spanish dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1922.

Born in Madrid, the son of a celebrated pediatrician, he returned drama to reality by way of social criticism: declamatory verse giving way to prose, melodrama to comedy, formula to experience, impulsive action to dialogue and the play of minds. Benavente showed a preoccupation with aesthetics and later with ethics.

A liberal monarchist and a critic of Socialism, he was a reluctant supporter of the Franco regime as the only viable alternative to what he considered the disastrous republican experiment of 1931-1936. Benavente died in Aldeaencabo de Escalona (Toledo) at the age of 87. He never married. According to many sources, he was homosexual.

Principal works

Jacinto Benavente wrote 172 works. The most important works are:

   * Los intereses creados (1907), comedy involving situations similar to those found in the Commedia dell'arte; it is Benavente's most famous and often performed work. It has been translated as The Bonds of Interest.
   * Rosas de otoño (1905), sentimental comedy.
   * Señora ama (1908), penetrante estudio psicológico de una mujer asediada por los celos.
   * La malquerida (1913), drama.
   * La ciudad alegre y confiada (1916), continuation from Los intereses creados.
   * Campo de armiño (1916)
   * Lecciones de buen amor (1924)
   * La mariposa que voló sobre el mar (1926)
   * Pepa Doncel (1928)
   * Vidas cruzadas (1929)
   * Aves y pájaros (1940)
   * La honradez de la cerradura (1942)
   * La infanzona (1945)
   * Titania (1946)
   * La infanzona (1947)
   * Abdicación (1948)
   * Ha llegado Don Juan (1952)
   * El alfiler en la boca (1954)

See also: The Nobel Prize in Literature 1922, Jacinto Benavente