Tristana

by Benito Pérez Galdós

Paper Book, 1974

Status

Available

Call number

2.perezgaldos

Genres

Fiction

Publication

Amsterdam : De Arbeiderspers; 215 p, 20 cm; http://opc4.kb.nl/DB=1/PPN?PPN=85162586X

User reviews

LibraryThing member bodachliath

This book is a curious mixture - a classic novel in style with some rather modern attitudes, especially for a book written in the nineteenth century.

There are three main characters. Don Lope is an ageing seducer with a diminishing fortune. Tristana is the orphaned daughter of his best friend who he

is supposedly caring for and Horacio is her charismatic and apparently altruistic lover. The story concerns the awakening of Tristana's consciousness, her affair with Horacio and its aftermath. Much of it centres on the lack of choices faced by women of the time who are not interested in marriage, and much of the book is written from Tristana's perspective. There is also quite a lot of gentle humour, and some linguistic invention which must have presented a challenge to the translator. This edition has a modern translation by the estimable Margaret Jull Costa.

An intriguing book, and a very readable one.

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LibraryThing member Gypsy_Boy

I’ve read Pérez Galdós before and enjoyed him. This time, not so much. In the words of the NYRB (whose edition I read, translated by the inimitable Margaret Jull Costa): “Don Lope is…charming and generous, unhesitatingly contributing the better part of his fortune to pay off a friend’s

debts, kindly assuming responsibility for the friend’s orphaned daughter, lovely Tristana. Don Lope takes her into his house and before long he takes her to bed. It’s an arrangement that Tristana accepts more or less unquestioningly— that is, until she meets the handsome young painter Horacio. Then she actively rebels, sets out to educate herself, reveals tremendous talents, and soon surpasses her lover in her open defiance of convention….” That’s the story. It’s well-told with sufficient local color (Madrid in the 1880s). It just left me cold; the characters well well-drawn and believable, the writing good… I just didn’t care for it. I guess I need to carve out enough time to read his most well-regarded Fortunata and Jacinta.

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