Doña Perfecta

Written by Benito Pérez Galdós

Narrated by Leonel Arias

Pepe Rey, hombre de ideas liberales, acude a Orbajosa, pequeña ciudad episcopal castellana, donde piensa casarse con una prima suya, Rosario, matrimonio acordado por su padre, Juan, y por la hermana de éste, la madre de la novia, Perfecta, viuda de Polentinos. Los novios se gustan de inmediato, apenas conocerse, y se declaran amor eterno, pero la intromisión de un canónigo de la catedral, don Inocencio, descarrila las buenas intenciones del padre y de la tía, y contraría el flechazo amoroso sentido por los jóvenes. La infeliz marcha de los acontecimientos desemboca en un enfrentamiento entre la tía y el sobrino, cuando ésta se niega a que la hija se case con un descreído.

• Language: Español
• Publisher: Audiolibros Colección
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889441533

Benito Pérez Galdós

Benito Pérez Galdós (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1843-Madrid, 1920) contaba treinta años y solo había publicado tres novelas cuando inició los Episodios nacionales. Bachiller en Artes en Tenerife, se trasladó en 1862 a Madrid para estudiar Derecho y se integró rápidamente en la vida cultural de la capital, cultivando amistades, asistiendo al Ateneo, participando en tertulias, siguiendo los estrenos teatrales y, a partir de 1865, escribiendo en la prensa, con algún viaje al extranjero y el abandono final de los estudios en tiempos de la Revolución de 1868. En ese período se fragua su primera novela, La fontana de oro, publicada en 1870. Después, y durante más de un lustro, lo absorberían las dos primeras series de los Episodios (1873-1879), tras las cuales abandona la novela histórica para dedicarse, durante casi veinte años, a novelar lo contemporáneo, y regresar a aquella en el cambio de siglo.

[kirmuriel-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I could have read it in one afternoon, had I the time. Maybe is a biased view of the people that live in small towns, but nevertheless it was engaging.
I loathe false modesty, totally hate it, and there was a part on the book were I almost threw it away, I was so enraged!

[lriley_43 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Set in the 19th century by Spain's leading fiction writer of his time in this novel we find one Pepe Rey the son of a wealthy Madrileno on a trip into the more rural world of Spain to visit his aunt Perfecta and with the intention of marrying her daughter Rosario (his first cousin--who he has never met)--an event arranged by both his father and his aunt.
Pepe Rey represents the modern Spain of his time--he is university educated--an architect and bridge builder by trade--his views tend towards a skeptical enlightenment. He is looking forward to seeing both his aunt and cousin--looking forward to his eventual marraige to Rosario. Initially things go fairly well--Pepe looks past the backwardness of Obrajosa (the town of Perfecta and Rosario) and the neighboring Villahorenda (Horribleville) and towards a future--one of which he hopes to play there with at least one particular project to improve the lives of its citizens. Soon things start falling apart though. A priest Don Inocencio (a regular visitor to Perfecta's home and Rosario's confessor) grills him at the first meeting. Inocencio twists whatever it is Pepe Rey has to say into his own much more narrow outlook. Inocencio is not interested in the divide between the haves and havenots of Obrajosa but much more interested in the divide in the reality between Pepe's modern Spain represented by Madrid and Inocencio's supposed more innocent and backward Spain as represented right there in the rurally backward Obrajosa. Pepe fends him off for a time but in attending the local Cathedral on his first sunday there for mass--he is more taken with the architecture of the church (which he considers to be grotesque) than he is with the service. The local community is scandalized--first that he paid so little attention to Mass and second that he thought so little of their Cathedral which they consider to be quite the opposite--very beautiful. With further grilling from Inocencio the conclusion is reached that Pepe is an atheist and nothing Pepe can say on the matter is going to change things in the minds of Perfecta and the townspeople except to maybe reinforce these perceptions they've decided on. At this point Perfecta decides to get rid of Pepe and to stop the marraige. Pepe and Rosario however have fallen head over heels for each other. Perfecta's stratagem is to keep Rosario out of sight from him. At the same time the Spanish Army moves into the region to suppress bands of rebels and bandits that infest the area. An officer is billeted on Perfecta's household and unknown to her and everyone else he is a friend of Pepe's and they concoct a plan that will allow Pepe and Rosario to meet on the sly and thereby surreptitiously continue their relationship. Perfecta and Inocencio representing local power interests resent the Spanish Army's presence. They in fact know and have some control over many of these roving bands that the Spanish Army is chasing--particularly the most fearsome one of them led by one Caballuco--a big powerful and fearless man who is a touch short on imagination and fairly easily manipulated. As the situations above continue to evolve Inocencio and Perfecta take more and more of a hand in directing Caballuco and company. The shock upon finding that her daughter has been seeing Pepe Rey behind her back though leads directly to the books conclusion with the murder of Pepe Rey by Caballuco and thereafter the committing of Rosario to an insane asylum and the breakup of the relationship between Inocencio and Perfecta.

For those who have never read Galdos--this would be a good book to start with--one of his earliest. Galdos has a very engaging tone--often quite humorous--even Cervantesque at times. His stories are well plotted and look deep within to the cultural and political underpinnings from which they spring.