After the abject failure of his first play, he decided to enlist in the army, and his experience fighting in Morocco led to his book Diary of a Witness of the African War.  
He was only 22 years old when his novel The Last Act of Norma appeared, and his later works include The Lucky Kid and The Scandal.  After the abject failure of his first play, he decided to enlist in the army, and his experience fighting in Morocco led to his book Diary of a Witness of the African War.  The long-time editor of the journal El Latigo, he is best known for a short comic novel about a miller whose beautiful wife plays a trick on a local official.  Though he also wrote The Prodigal Son and Captain Poison, his reputation relies on that 1874 work, which has inspired several musical adaptations.  FTP, name this Spanish author of The Three-Cornered Hat.
He was only 22 years old when his novel The Last Act of Norma appeared, and his later works include The Lucky Kid and The Scandal.  
Pedro Antonio de Alarcon y Ariza