What a long strange year in reading it has been. I hadn’t planned on reading Fortunata and Jacinta again or delving into more Galdós but I’m glad I did. I plan on reading a few more of his books that have been translated into English over the next few months, so you will be hearing more about him on these pages.
I will have a few more posts on this novel but I wanted to post this summary before moving onto other books. I plan at least three additional posts on the novel (which are noted below with the placeholders). I’m happy to see others are reading the novel and there have been some posts so far, and I look forward to reading more of them. I realize it’s a long, complex novel that takes more than a month to do it justice.
I hope the posts below have been helpful for those reading along and my biggest desire is that they (along with others’ posts) will drive some interest in the book and get others to read it. It’s a magnificent novel that deserves a wide audience. Enjoy!
Resources
My outline by subchapter
Links on Spanish history
The Illusion of Life Itself: some quotes and links to the Annual Pérez Galdós Lecture
More links: One
More links: Two
Fact and fiction at the same time: quotes from an article by Harriet Stevens Turner
Quotes from the novel about Torquemada (leading into reviewing Torquemada)
Other quotes I posted in a previous online life
Link to The Neglected Books Pages's review and notes on the novel
Posts
Volume One
Preliminary notes
Dreams that lead to the truth
Smuggling a story
Volume Two
Summary, miscellanea
The question of good works
Strong women; silencing the host
Volume Three
Failure
Practical philosophy
Volume Four
Segismundo Ballester
False progress and false hearts
An unasked question
Other posts
Placeholder: 1980 Spanish TV series
Roundup of other blogs' posts on the novel
Placeholder: Notes on Fortunata and Jacinta and La Regenta
5 comments:
Next week is Fortunata y Jacinta week at my place! Or four days or whatever - I guess I should not over-promise.
Your series of posts made me see how nervous I get about addressing anything of any real consequence about a book before I have finished it. My neurosis or, I like to think , my training on writers who are always setting traps for me.
Anyway, next week.
I'm looking forward to your posts. And I have the same nervousness, although that doesn't always stop me from posting (and later cringing).
Where could I find an online version of this book in English? I’m interested specifically in a good English translation of Fortunata’s letter to Jacinta in the last chapter right before she passes away. Thank you so much!
Cathy, sorry to say I'm not aware of any online version of the book in English. I know Project Gutenberg has it in Spanish, but I have not seen an online English translation.
Thank you for your quick reply, Dwight!
I am taking a literature class where we are reading and analyzing this novel and when it came to end, Fortunata's letter, which is very important and the words carry a great deal of symbols for interpretation, some students in the class (that Spanish is not their first language) missed it. So we thought that if they could read the letter in English it could help them. I'll keep searching. Gracias de nuevo!
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