Fortunata And Jacinta: Two Stories Of Married Women (1989) - Plot & Excerpts
Galdos is the Spanish Dickens. He's completely underrated andif you like Victorian literature you are certain to like thistoo. Galdós, Benito Pérez, Fortunata and Jacinta. Two Stories of Married Women. Translated with an Introductionby Anges Moncy Gullón. The University of Georgia Press. Athens. 1985. Galdós masterpiece work Fortunata y Jacinta: Two stories of married women is , an accurately drawn social portrait of nineteenth century Madrid. Written in four parts from 1886-1887. According to Turner, who wrote the introduction for Fortunata and Jacinta , the novel is set in the following historical background: Carlist wars, palace of intrigues, the revolution of 1868, an overthrow of the Queen Isabella, the brief reign of Amadeo of Savoy, the abort of the First Republic and the Bourbon restoration ( Alfonso XII ). The book depicts both the lower class and bourgeois society through two female Fortunata and Jacinta. Galdós weaves a witty, entertaining yet complicated and engaging plot. The story is told between huge dynasties, and close knit families where cousins marry cousins and your next door neighbor is likely to be your relative. Set in Madrid Spain, Galdós true to the tenets of realism, gives the reader an actual true to life portrayal of the shopkeepers, egg sellers, hookers, merchants, clerks, government officials, aristocracy, entrepreneurs, and neighbor all coming and going vibrantly within the stark contrast of the lower, and upper class neighborhoods of Madrid. Galdós powerful use of imagery gives you a feeling of being in Madrid: smelling the smell of hot chocolate and doughnuts, smelling the rain or seeing the mist frost a train window. Hearing the loud mouth vulgar hookers and gypsies that put their hands on their hips, or whether it’s with the bourgeois Santa Cruz family enjoying a night at the Opera at the Royal Theatre of Madrid not so much because they enjoy opera, but because they can afford to go. Perhaps, Barbara Santa Cruz taking a trip to the tailors in Madrid’s finest boutiques to buy the best chambray linen or going shopping to buy the best sirloin and the best tobacco for her husband Baldomero to enjoy on Sundays. Galdós writing is a great historian much of his writing takes place in the 1870´s, during the Alfonsine era of Spain. Fortunata and Jacinta is such an intellectually rich novel that it can be analyzed on many levels: psychologically, historically, religiously, and even from the feminist point of view. Galdós tells this story in four parts, as each part subsequently unfolds it draws you deeper into the mystery of these interesting, yet all too human and loveable characters. With characters as real and familiar we can not help but recognize ourselves are shortcomings and at the same time our beauty. What is unique about Galdós, that I haven’t seen in the Russian and French writers is his complete absorption and intricate detail that is at once captivating and intriguing. His narrative structure and style is utterly powerful and mesmerizing drawing the reader, into the unknown world of Madrid Spain in the late nineteenth century, where the use of the phaeton was still in vogue and it was customary for women to wear a flower in their hair. In the introduction of Fortunata and Jacinta, Page after page, Galdós, tells this story and you don’t want to put the book down. This should be required reading for anyone studying World Literature so they can compare with other writers from the realism literary movement like Dickens, and Balzac.
La presentación que de este libro aparece en esta web realmente hace justicia al valor del mismo: la más importante novela en castellano después del Quijote. Y realmente no es necesario haber avanzado demasiado en la lectura para irse dando cuenta de la enjundia del texto que tiene entre manos, porque esta es una novela total, en la que el autor hace relucir todos los elementos que uno se puede imaginar presentes en una gran ficción.Porque brillan los personajes, variados, numerosos y magníficamente caracterizados. Destacan las descripciones, que nos transportan a las escenas y los escenarios como si fuéramos espectadores invisibles. Los diálogos más parecen grabaciones sonoras que palabras impresas, tal es su fuerza y vitalidad. Qué bien se alternan los momentos de acción con las descripciones, los pasajes de monólogo interior con la voz tan sutilmente imparcial del narrador.En cuanto a la temática, habrán pasado más de cien años, pero el lector contemporáneo encontrará los conflictos y situaciones que se presentan permanecen vigentes y las reflexiones hechas entonces, sirvan como ejemplo las cuestiones políticas de la época en la que se desarrolla la historia, bien podrían aparecer en los artículos de prensa de nuestros días.Como tanto se ha escrito ya sobre esta monumental novela, no creo que merezca la pena que me extienda mucho más allá de enfatizar, por si lo dicho anteriormente no lo hubiera dejado claro, que recomiendo la lectura de Fortunata y Jacinta a cualquier persona que guste de la buena ficción. Y eso que las recomendaciones casi mejor no hacerlas ni cuando se solicitan.Para finalizar, me permito una reflexión en relación con el único aspecto del libro que no me satisfizo: el desenlace. Me pareció algo precipitado y no del todo coherente con el comportamiento esperado de Fortunata. Por un momento tuve la impresión de que Galdós tenía en mente resolver la novela de una manera distinta y no se decidiera a ello por no inclinar el platillo de la rectitud moral de uno de los lados en pugna.¿Alguien más opina que el desenlace es la piedra que desentona en este maravilloso edificio?
What do You think about Fortunata And Jacinta: Two Stories Of Married Women (1989)?
Although it took me one year to read the entire 818 pages, I really did enjoy it and I FINISHED IT TODAY! This giant book is the story of two women who were in love with the same man (a cad, by the way). The characters were memorable for their antics and their personalities. From "the saint" who went around helping all kinds of people, collecting money and articles from merchants and builders to construct her orphanage, to Maximilliano who went through many different personality disorders. The one thing that confused me was the use of different names for the same person. I figured it out eventually, but initially it made the storyline a little hard to follow. If you are looking for a book describing life in Spain in the 1870's, this is it. It is one of the greatest Spanish novels of the nineteenth century.
—Alleluialu
(view spoiler)[Bettie's BooksThe shelving, status update and star rating constitutes how I felt about this book. (hide spoiler)]
—Bettie☯
The subtitle for this book should be "Two Stories of Married Women, Their Men, Their Aunts, Some Other People, and All of Their Crazy". This is a massive book and I'm surprised that it took Galdós just a year to write it. There are a lot of characters here, a lot of different plot lines, all interconnected yet separate, and all quite enjoyable to read. Some call him the Spanish Dickens, and that's fine, but I feel like Galdós is on a planet of his own. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but this book felt richer and more vibrant than most of the Dickens I've read - and that's saying something because I do adore Dickens.Galdós was a realist, and realism drips from these pages. He wrote about cafe life in a way that made me want to throw everything away and run off to Spain to sit and talk politics and essentially do nothing with my life.None of my final thoughts are going to give any credit to this epic novel, but as I read I jotted down some notes and they are below. I'm leaving them unrevised, because they were my impressions while I read, so I don't need to expand on any of those thoughts or make corrections. They are what they are.I will stop here, with one thing more to say... Oh, poor Maxi. Poor, poor Maxi. But they won't be able to confine my thoughts within these walls. I live among the stars.Thoughts at the end of Volume I:-I've seen some comparisons to Dickens or Balzac. And I get it? 19th century literature, it's all the same, right? But this guy seems to be much more accessible than those guys. As much as I love Dickens, I'll be one of the first to admit he occasionally could be... erm, dry. I'd say if a comparison needs to be made (and I'm not necessarily convinced that's important), this Galdós guy would be more like Wilkie Collins - some sensationalism, a bit "kinder" to modern readers, that sort of thing. I'm sure that comment will piss someone off.It is also possible that the modernity of the book is thanks to the translator.-Man, so this story is cuhraaaazy. (view spoiler)[Did they really just decide they're going to take this kid? Whaaaa? (hide spoiler)]
—El
