Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) was a Spanish novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist. A key figure of the Generation of 1898, he is perhaps best known for his book-length philosophical essays, such as El sentimiento trágico de la vida (The Tragic Sense of Life), and short novels, such as Niebla (Mist).
Although several of his more popular works are readily available in English translation, many more are not. “The Man Who Buried Himself,” originally published in the Buenos Aires newspaper La Nación (as “El que se enterró”) in 1908, is one of several dozen compact stories (typically between 1000 and 2500 words in length) that together represent some of Unamuno’s most intriguing, most imaginative, and least known fiction work.
