The House of Ulloa

A mild young priest, Julián, comes to serve at the decaying manor of Ulloa in the wild Galician countryside, and finds it ruled by the brutish young marquis Don Pedro, his cunning majordomo Primitivo, and the coarse life of the estate. Pardo Bazán's naturalist masterpiece maps a real rural Galicia: the crumbling pazo among the hills, the surrounding hunting country, the city of Santiago de Compostela where Don Pedro takes a gentle wife, and the villages run by the caciques who really hold power.

Don Pedro

The pazo of Ulloa

Chapter 1

At the crumbling pazo of Ulloa, the young marquis Don Pedro lives a coarse, half-savage life of hunting, drinking and casual violence, more master of dogs than of himself. Into this decaying seat of a decaying aristocracy comes the gentle chaplain Julián, whose horror and helplessness before its brutality drive the book.

The main narrative

inspired by The decaying manor, the pazo of Ulloa, is drawn from the real fortified country houses of the Galician gentry; it is sited in the hill country of inland Galicia the novel portrays.

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