acommonreader.st
The other major find yesterday was a “new” used copy of La Regenta, retiring the pictured copy being held together by rubber bands. While I have many fond memories of piecing together the old copy (literally) while reading it, I’m hoping this one survives re-readings. Which I hope to do soon. First, though, I’ll need […]
I am such a huge fan of La Regenta by Leopoldo Alas that I tracked down several of his out-of-print English translations and devoured them, too. So I was extremely happy to see NYRB will be releasing His Only Son with a new translation by Margaret Jull Costa this fall. (Nice to see I have […]
Ten Tales by Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) Translated from the Spanish by Robert M. Fedorchek Introduction by John W. Kronik Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8387-5436-8In this post I’m going to focus on the story “Doña Berta,” one of the richest and most perplexing short stories/novellas I’ve read. I commented on the other nine stories […]
Ten Tales by Leopoldo Alas (Clarín) Translated from the Spanish by Robert M. Fedorchek Introduction by John W. Kronik Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-8387-5436-8 Reading and posting had suffered of late, so I’ll try and get caught up with a couple of posts on this collection of short stories by Leopoldo Alas. Ten […]
Tristana: Buñuel’s Film and Galdós’ Novel: A Case Study in the Relation Between Literature and Film by Colin Partridge (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1995) I had originally planned to have several posts on the main characters of Tristana and then talk about the opposing viewpoints on the novel but I realized that order […]
His Only Son by Leopoldo Alas Translation and introduction by Julie Jones Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1981) ISBN 0-8071-0759-xHis Only Son proves to be a difficult novel to describe but one that should be every bit as notable as La Regenta. Or rather, every bit as notable as La Regenta **should** be. Once […]
In His Only Son, Alas has drawn some remarkable characters. Emma Valcárcel, the wife of Bonifacio Reyes (Bonis), almost steals the novel. As I mentioned in the previous post, the names often provide either meaning or irony in Alas’ work. Emma’s name may recall Emma Bovary, but as I mentioned in the previous post that […]
Continuing the story of His Only Son…Part One can be found in this post. Bonifacio Reyes finds himself in a dilemma. First he was unfaithful to his wife with Serafina, the soprano of the visiting opera troupe. His wife’s unexpected advances one evening cause him to be an unfaithful lover, too. Bonis didn’t know…no one […]
Often dismissed as Leopoldo Alas’ only other finished novel after La Regenta, His Only Son (1890) stands on its own and is a delight to read. Much less sweeping in scope than La Regenta, Alas remains the critic in His Only Son, targeting many of the same topics for judgment and satire as in the […]
Even with several long posts on La Regenta I’ve barely scratched the surface of this wonderful novel, but I want to wrap things up so I can get to other books. Here are the posts to date on the book: Introduction: summary, introduction, technique, illustrations, references Excerpts: extended quotes on Ana’s boredom, attending Don Juan […]