Emilio Rabasa (1856-1930), lawyer, historian, literary critic, essayist and novelist, besides being a journalist and active participant in politics, stands out among the Mexican intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Considered to have introduced realism into Mexican fiction, Rabasa's writing reveals the influence of Perez Galdos as well as earlier Mexican writers, ranging from Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi's El periquillo sarniento (1816) to Jose Tomas de Cuellar's Baile y cochino (1886). A perceptive literary critic, journalist and well-informed historian, he was one...