The years of the first world war mark a division in the works of Valle-Inclan. The plays, novels and stories of the pre-1914 era show no trace of the bitter anger and satire which were to dominate all the works from 1920 onwards, though in some of the farsas, for example La cabeza del dragon, there are signs of the comedy being tinged with a mild irony. In another article I have attempted to show that, in general, in this period Valle-Inclan turned against and exposed to all the scorn of his disillusioned spirit those very ideals which he had so fondly cherished in his younger days.