MONTALVO, JUAN

born April 13, 1832, Ambato, Ecuador died Jan. 17, 1889, Paris, France Ecuadorean essayist, often called one of the finest writers of Spanish-American prose of the 19th century. After a brief period during which he served in his country's foreign service, Montalvo spent most of his life in exile, writing powerful essays attacking a succession of Ecuador's dictators. He was distinguished as a liberal thinker and a moralist and became famous for his Siete tratados (1882; Seven Treatises), which offered moral standards for the educated person. Montalvo's Captulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes (1895; Chapters That Were Omitted by Cervantes) was published posthumously and is considered one of the finest imitations of Cervantes' famous novel, Don Quixote.