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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Finally, I have a moment to write some notes on Volume 1 of Fortunata and Jacinta. Before delving into excerpts from the novel, I wanted to make some general comments that may (or may not) be helpful in reading the book. These comments aren’t meant to be comprehensive (trust me, they are very impromptu) but […]

Whew! I finished this project. Now I might actually find some time to write about the novel. One of the problems I have with a large novel like Fortunata and Jacinta is finding passages after reading them so I thought I would provide sub-chapter headings to help me (and anyone else) reading the novel. My […]

When I posted the schedule for the read-along I forgot my wife was going to be traveling and the boys and I would be living the bachelor life for a few days. The only casualty so far is a post I made Saturday evening—I’m not sure what happened to it but it has vanished. I […]

Please see the final outline post, replacing this placeholder for the work-in-process.

Without beating around the bush, Don Balomero made a very sensible commentary, the product of his experience and observation: “I don’t know what will happen twenty or fifty years from now. You can’t see that far ahead in Spanish society. All we know is that our country alternates between two fevers, revolution and peace. At […]