As an English major my background in Spanish literature was unfortunately limited. I have begun a personal project to fill in some of these gaps and it is proving to be a wonderful experience that has certainly been rewarding thus far. "Torquemada" by Benito Perez Galdos offers one of the truly great characters of literature in my opinion. He is nothing short of a rascal and an outrage, but you will love him and the book and find it very difficult to put the book down once you start reading. The cultural mosaic of Madrid and Spanish bourgeois society for better and for worse is brought clearly to the reader. Galdos is certainly a writer that deserves more attention in North America and the international literary community. He is truly one of the greatest on the stage of world literature and accomplished writing.

This book is about a young woman who must now try and survive with her deceased father's closest friend Don Lope. This older gentlemen takes her in and treats her well. Well, that is until he rapes her. Tristana becomes emotionally confused with her new father-figure/companion. She trys to gain his love but all she sees is a paternal figure. Tristana then meets an handsome young man of her age and they are in love. When Tristana tells this man, Horacio, of her lack of virginity, he realizes that the two could not be married. (Since the book is based in the 1920's...being dishonored was horrible). They do in fact consumate the relationship. Before things can get any further, Tristana developes a sickness that forces her to loose her leg. But who will stand vidgil over her bed?...the one she loves to hate...or the man she loves?... Read to find out! This book is an easy read for teenagers who are or understand the spanish language. It shows some real experiences that can make for interesting conversation.

This book, about Pablo, the blind man who falls in love with his guide, Nela, embodies the frailty of appearance vs. reality. After reading this book, I am able to look at Nela and see an image of the modern woman. Despite the fact that it's over 100 yrs old, Marianela lives on today.

I must admit that this book didn't pick my interest when I started reading it in My Spanish AP class in high school. Now after reading it I have to say that this book is wonderfully written and very educational.
Marianela is a girl who lives in The Mines of Socartes, she is the guide of a rich boy who suffers fom blindness Pablo. I loved Marianela's character since the first pages, she is so full of life, so innocent. All her life she lived out of the pity of others but it didn't matter to her. Pablo "said" he loved her and she lived in this illusion where she thought that she would finally be loved and not criticized by her looks.
Then, everything changed when Teodoro Golfin, a miracle doctor gave Pablo his sight. That's when everything changed. When Pablo saw what Marianela really looked like, he just started treating her horribly. Where did all his love go? I have to say that by the end of the book I hated Pablo with a passion. How can someone be so cynical as to tell a person how beautiful she is without really seeing the exterior appearance and then being disgusted by what he sees when he looks at how that person really looks? Sadly that's what happens with Pablo and it would have been better if he had stay blind.
This book bring some things that are really important. True beauty is on the inside, never judge someone by their exterior appearace because you might be surprised. True beauty is not something that you can see or touch, beauty has to be felt.
I highly recomend this book, it will touch your heart I promise

Pablo, a rich blind boy is madly in love with poor Marianela. Things go smooth until renowned Doctor Teodoro Golfín offers to cure up Pablo's eyes. Marianela, who thinks she is ugly is afraid that when he starts seeing, he'll see how ugly(on the surface) she really is. Her fears are confirmed when he falls for his beautiful cousin Florentina, who doesn't treat Marianela too well. She is so attached to Pablo that if she doesn't look beautiful for him, she won't be any use to him. A very destructive point of view which she sticks to. It's a tragic ending but it's common in most Spanish-language stories.

Having read this novel both in Spanish and in translation, I can truly say that it's a masterpiece. The characters are realistically drawn, the plot is engaging, and most inportantly, we can see the inner feelings and motivations behind the main characters' actions. This book can be analyzed on so many levels: psychological, historical, from a feminist perspective...it's a gold-mine for Galdos scholars. But it shouldn't be limited to Spanish literature scholars; English majors should read it in their world lit classes to compare with Dickens.

Until I picked up a copy of Fortunata and Jacinta on a whim from a bookseller in Burgos, I had never heard of Benito Pérez Galdós: Why this novel isn't better-known in America is completely beyond me. Pérez Galdós is sometimes compared to Dickens, but the comparison is misleading: for delicious ambiguity, unsettlingly realistic psychology, and unforgettable, sympathetic characters far more engaging than vulgar, oversimplified Dickensian puppets, Pérez Galdós is far superior. The narrative sparkles with humor and wit while never compromising the tragic beauties that make the book so powerful. It's no exaggeration to say that this book should be required reading for anyone interested in culture - a classic not only of Spanish, but of Western Literature.

An unexpected delight, author Perez Galdos is the Iberian Dickens, with dozens of full length novels, many in an intricate historical series. Fortunata y Jacinta is perhaps his best known work, a sharply drawn social portrait of mid-Victorian era Madrid. The lower class and the bourgeoisie are each represented by one female protagonist, with penetrating looks at the clergy, government, and business establishments as backdrops

This book is really 4 differet ones put together but originally, written and published separately. Nevertheless it reads as a one novel. One of the things that I most enjoy about Galdos is that when he creates a good secondary character he often comes back to it and continues with its development writting another novel around and about it. This is the case with Don Francisco at first only slightly sketched in "Fortunata y Jacinta" , "Doctor Centeno" and "Miau" and finally fully developed here. The work of Galdos is- to use one of Torquemada's favourite latin locutions- sui generis. We are treated to a tremendously complex study, characterization and transformation of the character-so tipical of 19th century naturalism- the attention to detail, the insight into the man's mind and soul is so profound and so well documented that Torquemada might easily rank amongst the most perfectly humane creations dreamed up by the writer. We follow Don Francisco through a series of deep transformations that take him from the very bottom of society to the highest circles of 19th century Madrilenian nobility. At the end of the day -Galdos seams to be telling us- in spite of all the social mobility of our time, in spite of the achivements and advances of the bourgeossy, you are what you were ment to be and nothing else and if you're born a peasant a peasant you'll die. So Torquemada comes back full circle to his origins which deep inside had always been undisturbed by the fuss. And there is, I think, where all the ingenuity of Galdos lays, in the change within the change that deep down never really happened.