BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS (1874)

Born May 10, 1843 Las Palmas Canary Islands.

Considered by some critics the greatest Spanish novelist since Cervantes.

A political and religious liberal who decried the stifling of Spanish intellectual life and the hypocrisies of the ubiquitous and powerful clergy, he thought in national rather than regional terms although his best work reflected his intimate knowledge of Madrid.

Forsaking the study of law for journalism he early began to earn his livelihood by writing.
His first novel La fontana de oro (1870, The Fountain of Gold) along with others of his early works, reflected lines of political thought already evident in his journalism.

He began to write a very personal type of historical novel, his Episodios nacionales in 1873.
The first series covered Spanish history during the Napoleonic wars, a period neglected by Spanish historians but seen by Galdós as an explanation for the Spain of the 1870s.
He perfected a unique mixture of authenticity and fiction in two series of 10 novels each.

His contemporary novels beginning with Doña Perfecta (1876) continued the tendentious trends of his earlier works and often had strong theses but he portrayed Spanish society with great sympathy and insight.

Galdós knew the works of his European contemporaries.
The influence of the literary currents and styles of the day may be seen, for example, in the naturalism of Lo prohibido (1884-85) and in his masterpiece Fortunata y Jacinta (4 vols., 1886-87).

In his later novels his fondness for contemporary life and an honest appraisal of it did not stop him from questioning and searching.
Nazarín (1895) has a Christ-like protagonist and the central figure of Misericordia (1897) is an expression of Galdós´ religious humanity.

Some of the works Galdós wrote for the theatre were immensely popular but their success was largely attributable to the political views he presented rather than to their artistic value.
His successes were unfortunately matched with equally egregious failures.

He began a third series of the Episodios nacionales in 1898 and eventually went on to write a fourth and even to start a fifth.

His last years showed a decline in mental powers compounded by the blindness that overtook him in 1912.

Died in Madrid Jan. 4, 1920.