Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Spanish majors who want to read a full-length nineteenth-century Spanish novel in the original
- General readers interested in Spanish realist literature and social history
- Teachers and students who need a free public-domain eBook for supplementary course reading
- Readers who enjoy observing bureaucracy and city life through the lens of a family
Not a good fit for
- Readers with no Spanish who want a Chinese translation
- Readers who prefer tightly plotted, fast-paced genre fiction
- Readers with little interest in nineteenth-century social background who simply want a quick read
Reading tips
- First get an overview of Galdós's "Contemporary Spanish Novels" as a whole, then approach this book, so as to grasp the characters' situation.
- Pay attention to dialogue and everyday details as you read; they often reveal character and social pressure more directly than plot.
- Read alongside background material on nineteenth-century Spanish bureaucracy and Madrid city life.
- Spanish learners can read chapter by chapter and make a character chart to ease the burden of a long original text.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
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- 22
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- 24
- 25
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- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
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- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
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- 56
FAQ
Is this book a Chinese translation or the Spanish original?
Can I read this book without any Spanish?
Is this book suitable for learning about Spanish realist literature?
What should I keep in mind when reading the electronic edition?
Comments
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About the author
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) is a major representative of Spanish realist fiction, with 39 of his works held in this collection. Public information is limited, so biographical details are kept brief, but the character of his work is clear: he generally sets his stories against everyday life in Spanish cities and villages, portraying society through themes such as marriage, family, poverty and shifts in class. Representative works including Fortunata y Jacinta, Misericordia, Marianela, Tormento and La de Bringas reflect this direction. His style combines realism with irony, with careful psychological portrayal and vivid dialogue; historical works such as Trafalgar show his ability to handle broad settings. His writing has had a lasting influence on later Spanish fiction.
