Fortunata and Jacinta (Classics) [Mass Market Paperback]

Benito Perez Galdoz (Author), Lester Clark (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1973 | Series: Classics

Galdos has been called the Balzac or Dickens of Spain, and "Fortunata and Jacinta" (1887) is his masterpiece. Set in Madrid between 1868 and 1875, it treats both political tumult and personal obsession, telling the story of two women who love the same man - one his mistress and the other his wife.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This new translation of Spanish novelist Perez Galdos's 19th century tale depicting society during the Alfonsine restoration of 1875, a masterpiece patterned on Balzac and Dickens, provides a read that is startlingly fresh and immediate. Fortunata, a glorious woman of the people, struggles all her life against the angelic, bourgeois Jacinta; both adore Jacinta's charming, selfish husband, the sybarite Juanito. Perez Galdos (18431920) steeps his story in scenes of working- and middle-class Madrid that are panoramic and intimate: the streets and reeking tenements, shops and stalls that open like mouths, the fashion trades, cafes where idlers thrash out politics, the pharmacy where Fortunata's sickly husband Maxi goes mad with jealousy, the convent in which the passionate Fortunata is locked to repent her promiscuity, the twin beds where Juanito caresses Jacinta with lies. Gentle Jacinta buying a baby she thinks is Fortunata's is just one of the novel's shrewd, unforgettable characterizations that reveal the commercial nexus and often animal thirst for power infecting the populous Perez Galdos world. A vast, savory novel in the great tradition, this is not to be missed.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This masterpiece of Spain's greatest novelist after Cervantes, appearing on the centennial of its composition, complements the same publisher's issue of another overlooked classic, Alas's La Regenta ( LJ 3/1/84). The sprawling plot and polyphonic structure resist easy summary but essentially focus on the interrelationships of two married couplesthe refined but barren Jacinta and her pampered, philandering husband, whose mistress, the lowborn but fertile Fortunata, is wed to a sickly schizophrenicinto whose lives swarms a hive of secondary characters from all walks of 19th-century Madrid life. Gullon's translation is much more readable, contemporary, and accurate than Lester Clark's partial translation (Penguin, 1973). An essential acquisition. Lawrence Olszewski, P.L. of Columbus & Franklin Cty., Ohio
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 1072 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (September 1, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140442774
• ISBN-13: 978-0140442779
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,491,426 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Que Novela Magnifica, January 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fortunata and Jacinta: Two Stories of Married Women (Classics) (Paperback)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An overlooked masterpiece, February 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Fortunata and Jacinta (Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humane and observant fictional window on 19th Century Spain, September 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Fortunata and Jacinta: Two Stories of Married Women (Classics) (Paperback)

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