Author: Michael NimetzPublisher: New Haven : Yale University Press
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
"By focusing on humor as a positive element in Galdós' writing rather than an extraneous or expendable device, Mr. Nimetz presents the Spanish novelist as a figure of more than local significance. The Novelas contemporáneas, begun in 1881, are shown to be a summation of many kinds of realism developed earlier in the nineteenth century; moreover, the liberating faith in human endeavor found in Galdós' cycle is seen as the antithesis of the deterministic view of man in naturalistic novels of his own time. Galdós' major targets and weapons--romance and delusion, satire and irony--often resemble those of Balzac and Dickens, but the low-keyed humor with which he captured everyday events is very much his own. The delightfully humorous effects of his approach make him a fascinating transitional figure in the development of the modern novel."--Dust jacket.