[2] The family's principal residence was in Rúa Tabernas but they also owned two other houses, one close to Sanxenxo and the other, known as the Pazo de Meirás, located in the outskirts of the city.

Her father, believing in the intellectual equality of men and women,[3] provided her with the best education possible, inspiring her life-long love for literature.

[5] Emilia had access to a broad range of reading material in her father's library, later stating that among her favorites were Don Quijote de la Mancha, the Bible and the Iliad.

Her frequent visits to France would prove to be especially useful later in her life by helping her connect with the literary world of Europe and become familiar with important authors like Victor Hugo.

The following year, 1868, saw the outbreak of the Glorious Revolution, resulting in the deposition of Queen Isabella II and awakening in Emilia an interest in politics.

Emilia Pardo Bazán always had a great admiration for Feijoo, an eighteenth-century Galician intellectual, possibly due to his feminism avant la lettre.

This was followed by a series of articles in La Ciencia cristiana, a highly orthodox Roman Catholic magazine, edited by Juan Orti y Lara.

She was encouraged by its success and, two years later, she published Un viaje de novios (A Honeymoon Trip), in which an incipient interest in French naturalism can be observed, causing something of a sensation at the time.

Yet perhaps its most abiding merit lies in its depiction of country life, the poetic realization of Galician scenery portrayed in an elaborate, colourful style.

In all of her works she incorporated her ideas on the modernization of Spanish society, on the need for female education and on women's access to all the rights and opportunities that men already enjoyed.

[16] Fond of gastronomy, in 1905 Pardo Bazán prologued La cocina práctica ("the practical cuisine") by her friend Manuel Purga y Parga, aka Picadillo.

[17] She is credited as one of the food writers and gastronomes who joined the initiative for pushing forward the idea of the modern Spanish national cuisine in the early 20th century, recognisable by Spaniards as their own.