ARMANDO PALACIO VALDÉS

(1853 - 1938)
He was born in Entralgo, although due to family and professional reasons he spent his life between Avilés, Oviedo and, mainly, Madrid. He studied Law, which he did not practise, and from a very young age he became devoted to literarure. He has written more than twenty novels, amongst which some are considered masterpieces -The fourth power, The faith or The foam, for example- and others have gained recognition by the reading public, like José or La hermana San Sulpicio. Many of his literary works have been taken to the big screen and he was one of the best known novelists of the time, receiving many tributes. He was Academic of the language and, on two occasions, candidate for the Nobel Prize. Four of his novels -El señorito Octavio, El idilio de un enfermo, La aldea perdida and Sinfonía pastoral- are based on the council of Laviana, with which he continued sentimentally and physically united all his life. From 2003, in his home, in Entralgo, The Centre of interpretation Palacio Valdés has been opened in order to popularize his life and his literary works.