01. Benito Pérez Galdós

Major Figures in Spanish Culture

The general view of Nineteenth Century European narrative is somehow incomplete. The literary critics who set up the canonical banquet table of the XIX century novelists made name tags for only a few: Balzac, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Zola and Henry James. Meanwhile writers of equal talent, like Benito Pérez Galdós—considered the most important fiction writer in Spain after Miguel de Cervantes—were not even contemplated as possible guests. In this episode, Germán Gullón, literary critic, writer and Professor emeritus of Spanish Literature at the University of Amsterdam, presents the life, work and significance of this outstanding figure in Spanish culture.

With readings of Galdós by Heilet van Ree.

Books and publications about Benito Pérez Galdós

Nobelprize.org: Benito Pérez Galdós at the Nomination Archive

Berkowich, H. C., Pérez Galdós: Spanish Liberal Crusader, Madison, University of Wisconsin, 1948.

Bly, Peter A., ‘Galdós as Traveller and Travel Writer’, The Tenth Annual Pérez Galdós Lecture, Sheffield, The University of Sheffield, 2010.

Dendle. Brian J., The Spanish Novel of Religious Thesis, 1876-1936, Valencia - Princeton, Princeton University - Castalia, 1968.

Dupont, Denise, Realism as Resistance: Romanticism and Authorship in Galdós, Clarín, and Baroja, Bucknell, Bucknell University Press, 2006.

Gilman, Stephen (1981), Galdós and the Art of the European Novel: 1867-1887, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2014.

Gullón, Germán, ‘Sentimental Genetics: The Birth of the Human Intimate Sphere (Miau)’, The Third Annual Pérez Galdós Lecture, Sheffield, The University of Sheffield, 1999.

McKinney, Collin, Mapping the Social Body: Urbanization, the Gaze, and the Novels of Galdós, Charlotte, University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Pattison, Walter T., Benito Pérez Galdós, New York, Twayne, 1975.

Percival, Anthony, Galdós and his Critics, Toronto, University of Toronto, 1985.

Ríos-Font, Wadda C., The Canon and the Archive: Configuring Literature in Modern Spain, Bucknell, Bucknell University Press, 2004.

Sackett, Theodore A., Pérez Galdós. An Annotated Bibliography, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1968.

Snow, C. P., The Realists. Eight Portraits, New Yok, Macmillan, 1978.

Tsuchiya, Akiko, Images of the Sign: Semiotic Consciousness in the Novels of Benito Pérez Galdós, Columbia, University of Missouri Press, 1990.

Walton, L. B., Pérez Galdós, London, Dent, 1927

English editions of Galdós’ works

Trafalgar and The Battle of Salamanca [La batalla de Arapiles], translation by Rick Morgan, Bath, Brown Dog Books, 2019.

Tristana, translation by Margaret Jull Costa, New York, NYRB Classics, 2014.

Our Friend Manso [El amigo Manso], translation by Robert Russell, New York, Columbia University Press, 1987.

Fortunata and Jacinta: Two Stories of Married Women, translation by Agnes Moncy, New York, Penguin, 1986.

The Shadow [La sombra], translation by Karen. O. Austin, Athens, Ohio, Ohio University Press, 1980.

The Disinherited [La desheredada], translation by Lester Clark, London, The Folio Society, 1976.

Miau, translation by J.M. Cohen, London, Methuen, 1963.

Torment, translation by J. M. Cohen, New York, Farrar Straus&Young, 1953.

The Spendthrifts [La de Bringas], translation by G. Woolsey, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1951.

Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor [Zaragoza], translation by Minna Caroline Smith, Boston, Little and Brown, 1899.

Doña Perfecta, translation by Mary Jane Serrano, with an Introduction by William Dean Howells, New York, Harper&Brothers, 1894-1895.

Lady Perfecta, translation by Mary Wharton, London, T. Fisher Unwin, 1894.

Marianela, translation by Mary Wharton, London, Digby, Long, 1893.

Marianela: A Story of Spanish Love, translation by Helen W Lester, Chicago, AC McClurg, 1892.

The Court of Charles IV [La corte de Carlos IV], translation by Clara Bell, New York, William S Gottsberger, 1888.

Leon Roch, A Romance, translation by Clara Bell, London, Trubner / New York, William S. Gottsberger, 1888.

Trafalgar, translation by Clara Bell, London, Trubner, 1884.

Marianela, translation by Clara Bell, New York, William S. Gottsberger, 1883.

Gloria, translation by Clara Bell, New York, William S. Gottesberger / London, Trubner, 1882.