From the declining aristocracy to the popular classes, Pérez Galdós has portrayed the social inequalities that mark Spain from the XIXe century. This “ Spanish Balzac Fascinates the Nobel of literature of Peruvian origin.
In Benito Pérez Galdós, the calm lookMario Vargas Llosa analyzes the work and the narrative approach of the Spanish writer. The academician highlights his exceptional talent to grasp the social and political tensions of his time, while brushing portraits of a remarkable psychological depth.
The Hispano-Peruvian writer with an in-depth immersion in the work of Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920), nicknamed the “ Spanish Balzac ». This major figure in modern Spanish literature is distinguished by a monumental production of one hundred novels and thirty plays, as well as by its meticulous description of the society of its time, but also of the city of Madrid of which he “ was the best specialist in its streets and bouges, (…) of its human types, their trades and their customs (P. 13).
A giant unknown to Spanish realistic literature
Born in 1843 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Benito Pérez Galdós stands out as one of the greatest writers of the XIXe century in Spain. After studying law in Madrid, he quickly abandoned this path to devote himself entirely to literature. His talent and stiff look at society place him in the foreground of the Spanish realistic movement, erecting his work in a vast picture of life and social tensions of his time.
Man of letters and convictions, Galdós in turn endorses the roles of novelist, academician, deputy and intellectual committed. A true social columnist, he lucidly scrutinizes society of his time, denouncing the hypocrisies of the Catholic bourgeoisie while highlighting the condition of the middle and popular classes. His writing, nourished by a particular sensitivity in place of women in society, is distinguished by rare acuity. Madrid, an abundant city which he erects as a protagonist of his stories, becomes the privileged theater of his observations. It captures its essence in particular through cafes, real microcosms where intrigue, exchanges and debates are tied, reflections of a capital in perpetual effervescence.
At the end of XIXe A century, Galdós was perceived as a republican fervent and a defender of national renewal, aroused as much the admiration of a large readership as the criticisms of the conservatives. Heir to the Cervantin spirit, he embodies a Spain attached to the ideals of progress and freedom, leaving behind a colossal work which consecrates it as the undisputed master of Spanish realism.
A historiographical and sociological look
At the heart of his work, the National episodes constitute a literary fresco of an exceptional scale, extending over several decades and retracing the historical upheavals of Spain, of the Napoleonic war at the first decades of the XXe century. Through this monumental cycle of 28 novels, Galdós is both a historian and sociologist, capturing the political and social changes in his country. He is not content to relate the events: he sheds light on a critical look, staging the forces and contradictions that shape Spanish society. His work is thus in line with the great European realistic novelists, erecting the historical story as a tool for reflection on the present.
In addition to his historiographical role, Mario Vargas Llosa particularly underlines Galdós’ ability to combine social realism and psychological analysis in his portraits of characters. Finesse of observation, accuracy of human relations and psychological insight make him a real physiognomist of his time. He reached the top of his romantic art with Fortunata y Jacinta (1886-1887) which masterfully illustrates its realistic approach. This masterpiece deploys a striking social fresco through the cross destinies of two women: Fortunata, from the people, and Jacinta, bourgeois, both linked by their love for the same man, Juan Santa Cruz. The latter, selfish and insensitive, embodies the social fractures and the inequalities of his time. Galdós deploys a look that is both analytical and critical, surveying the psychology of its characters while dissecting the structures that govern their existence. Through this love triangle, he composed a real sociological portrait of Madrid of XIXe century, where each district becomes the reflection of a specific social condition.
Far from being a simple decor, Madrid sets up as a symbol of social disparities, each urban space testifying to the cleavages that shape the city. In this context, Galdós excels in capturing the soul of different social circles, conferring on Fortunata y Jacinta A double scope: it is both a psychological novel and social chronic. This fresco is transformed into a mirror of a society in full change, where hopes of social transformation fall asleep even when modernity seems at hand. Indeed, at the end of XIXe A century, Spain struggled to keep up with the rhythm of industrialization, digging the gap with northern Europe and relegating the Spanish golden age to the rank of a bygone past. This economic delay nourishes a feeling of deep decline among intellectuals of the time, which, through their writings, denounce a frozen social order, slowing down both economic progress and the emancipation of popular classes.
Thus, by his work, Galdós reveals himself not only as a leading novelist, but also as an attentive observer and a clairvoyant analyst of Spanish society. His gaze embraces history and the human condition, offering both intimate and global reading of social dynamics that shape its time.
The Hypocrite Bien-Run
Although his work occupies an eminent place in Spanish and international realism, Benito Pérez Galdós never received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mario Vargas Llosa, himself a prize winner in 2010, but also a politician, engaged on the right, attributes this dismissal to hostility from conservative and ecclesiastical environments, as well as to liberal and anticlerical convictions of Galdós. Throughout his career, the writer distinguished himself by an incisive criticism of the institutions of his time, in particular of the Catholic Church, which earned him solid enmities among the political and cultural elites. For Vargas Llosa, this exclusion from the Nobel charts reflects an injustice both historical and cultural, symptomatic of the ideological tensions that have crossed Spain of the Spain of the Spain of the Spain of the Spain XIXe century and which have permanently influenced the reception of his work.
This paradox between the apparent serenity of his writing and the virulence of his denunciation is at the heart of the analysis of Vargas Llosa. He describes the narration of Galdós as “ tranquility that merges with immobility, making its stories of photographs “(P. 17), advancing” serenely, calmly in a quiet step (P. 19). This stylistic approach, of relentless realism, in no way reduced the power of the subject: under this tranquility deploys a biting social criticism, exposed the hypocrisy of an allegedly virtuous society.
Albert Bensoussan, translator and friend of Vargas Llosa, perceives in the themes addressed by Galdós – the rape of young girls, the pedophilia of a priest, the scandalous links and the countless sprains with moral principles advocated by a hypocritical society – the expression of deaf and contained anger. Galdós turns out to be the ruthless chronicler of this Black Spainwhich he exposes, without detour, contradictions and injustices. His gaze, both lucid and indignant, finds an echo in the cinematic work of Luis Buñuel, a filmmaker inhabited by a personal resentment towards the Church and sharing the anticlericalism of the novelist.
Three of Buñuel’s cinematographic adaptations brilliantly testify to the influence of Galdós’ works, who have fed his vision to create films impregnated with a acerbic social criticism: Tristanawhere Catherine Deneuve embodies a mutilated heroine, symbol of moral and social oppressions ; Nazarinwhich transposes the Galdosian lesson to the screen according to which “ It is not possible to follow the example of Christ in Galilee in a society too corrupt and degraded to take it into account (P. 190) ; And Viridianastriking fresco where beggars, rapists and murderers rub shoulders, figures of a broken humanity.
An intellectual and intimate dialogue between two authors
Mario Vargas Llosa offers us a reading and living reading of the work of Benito Pérez Galdós, engaging with him a real literary dialogue. More than just a critical analysis, his essay reveals a subtle conversation between two writers united by their vision of the world and by surprisingly parallel journeys. Vargas Llosa analyzes and highlights the narrative architecture of Galdós, stressing the art with which he circulates his characters from one novel to another. This technique, which gives its work a remarkable unit and depth, undeniably brings it closer to Balzac. As The Human Comedythe Galdosian universe is populated by recurring figures, creating an abundant network where each story intertwines with the others, offering a coherent fresco from the Spanish company. This romantic continuity, marked by the greatest realistic authors, reinforces the ambition of Galdós: capturing not only the soul of its time, but also its movement, its contradictions and its tensions.
If he clarifies the realism and humanism of Galdós with precision, we can however blame him for softening the image, minimizing the dull anger which underpins his work and which aims for the injustices of his time. Vargas Llosa highlights the “ calm look »Of a liberal, republican and deeply humanist novelist. Other criticisms, such as Sadi Lakhdari, insist on a more ardent facet of the Canarian: under this apparent serenity hides deep indignation. In the line of Cervantes, Balzac and Dickens – which he translated Las Aventuras de Pickwick In 1868 – Galdós established himself as an uncompromising observer of Spanish society, denouncing with acuity his faults and his hypocrisies. His pen, far from being neutral, testifies to an assertive social and political commitment, visible as much in his novels as in his journalistic writings. This displayed calm would therefore be only a lure, an artifice intended to hide the harshness of her fight for a fairer and more united Spain.
But beyond the intellectual exchange, Vargas Llosa suggests a more intimate link with Galdós, an identification which goes beyond the literary framework. Both first followed law studies, not by vocation, but as a passage before kissing the writer’s career: a legal training which offered them an analytical look at society and its cogs, while nourishing their reflection on justice, inequalities and political tensions of their time. Where Galdós sought to free himself from maternal weight, Vargas Llosa freed himself from the paternal figure, and everyone found in writing a personal affirmation, a means of conquering his independence. This parallel continues even in their sentimental life, marked by unions within the family circle – Galdós is “ Lovers at twenty years from a cousin “(P. 12) That his stifling mother did not find to her taste, Vargas Llosa first marrying her aunt by alliance before remarking with his cousin. This game of reflections gives the Peruvian essay a particular dimension: more than a critical admiration, it is a dialogue between peers, between two spirits linked by their journey, their quest for freedom and their sentimental and literary commitment.