This chapter proposes that the most enduring contribution of the ill-fated second generation of Romanticism – whose members included the suicidal Manuel Acuña and syphilitic Manuel M. Flores, to name but two – was not that they exhibited traits associated with European Romanticism. Rather, this chapter posits that they gave rise to a longue durée Romantic sensibility that lasted well into the twentieth century. Furthermore, we here argue that this important legacy belongs to mostly female authors, starting with Laura Méndez de Cuenca and María Enriqueta, who begin their successful careers in the nineteenth century. The work of these and other female authors, widely read by their contemporaries but then omitted from scholarly attention, demands examination, in particular as scholarly interest in their work intensifies.