Jacinto Benavente won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Literature for his joyful way of continuing the Spanish drama tradition.
Benavente was a prolific Spanish playwright whose works examined family life, social class, marriage, and hypocrisy. He wrote more than 170 plays, making him one of the most productive dramatists in modern Spanish literature.
His best-known drama is The Bonds of Interest, a satirical comedy first performed in 1907. The play draws on the commedia dell’arte tradition and centers on characters whose relationships are shaped by money and deception.
Benavente is sometimes confused with Federico García Lorca, another major Spanish dramatist. Lorca became internationally famous for plays such as Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba, but he did not win the Nobel Prize.