The previous post looked at Feijóo’s practical philosophy he tried to impart to Fortunata to survive her “restoration” into the Rubín family. Feijóo’s outlook is one of practicality—setting an ideal goal but planning for contingencies. Feijóo continues in the line of people attempting to reform Fortunata. Where the Rubín family tried to confine Fortunata in […]
Author: Dwight
After Juan dumps Fortunata again, she is protected by the retired military man Evaristo Feijóo. He sets her up in her own place and proposes an arrangement for her to be his lover. She accepts but, as his health declines, the dynamic changes mostly to a father-daughter relationship. (This isn’t the only relationship in the […]
I mentioned in the previous post that I planned to look at some of the principal female characters introduced in Volume Two. Volume One had several strong female characters, notably Guillermina Pacheco and Isabel Cordero, and Volume Two adds to this roster. Doña Lupe succeeds in the business world as a student of the usurer […]
Still recovering from a happy hour from last night with former co-workers. The high (low?) point of the evening was a potential recreation of a live karaoke performance (singing with a live, performing group) of a … ummm… rumored performance at a company meeting. By me. Fortunately things didn’t escalate to that point. The crowd […]
I was part of a layoff today so blogging will be a lower priority until I get the job-hunt machinery cranked up. I plan on finishing the Fortunata and Jacinta read-along on schedule, more or less. We’ll see how things are going in a few weeks. Good karma sent this way is greatly appreciated!
The model for Guillermina Pacheco is the historical persona of Doña Ernestina Manuel de Villena (1830-86). Galdós himself praised the charity work and character of Ernestina shortly after her death. He considered her a true saint of the modern world. Fervently Catholic and tenacious of spirit, she built an asylum for orphans in Madrid brick […]
Volume 2 focuses on Fortunata’s story. First, though, we meet the Rubín family, headed by Doña Lupe, a widow who has been tutored in financial dealings by Sr. Torquemada. Her nephews are Juan Pablo, Nicolás, and Maximiliano, nicknamed Maxi, a sickly pharmacy student. Maxi meets Fortunata (after her affair with Juan) and is smitten. Fortunata […]
First some links: The review at Open Letters Monthly An excerpt and recommendation by Michael Cunningham I’m not as enthusiastic about The Pilgrim Hawk as the links above are. It’s a well-told story working on several layers, especially when noting the focus of the subtitle (“A Love Story”) is secondary to the more subtle focus […]
Recognizing my outline only makes sense to someone reading the novel (and maybe not even to them), a short recap of Volume 1… Galdós provides the genealogy of the Santa Cruz and Arnáiz families and focuses on the adolescence and young adulthood of Juan Santa Cruz. Juan’s mother, aware that he is hanging with a […]
I’m going to start my series of excerpts with one of the weirdest moments in the novel but also one of the most revealing. Funny how the two sometime go together. But first some background. Galdós loves to set up comparisons. Juan Santa Cruz was a spoiled only child that never wanted for anything. As […]