An incursion into the literary laboratory of Galdós: Rosalía

Abstract

In 1983 Alan Smith edited the manuscript of an incomplete novel by Galdós that he had discovered shortly before in the Biblioteca Nacional of Madrid and which he titled Rosalía. This work has been very little visited by critics despite the time that has already passed. As it is an immature novel –almost a draft– this gives it a remarkable significance: allows us to discover Galdós’ creational process, the successes, failures, hesitations and reflections that all this provokes in him. In this sense, our article focuses on several very relevant aspects in Rosalía. Thus, the author’s ambivalent attitude towards the feuilleton which, at the same time, rejects and absorbs. The peredian presence in the novel, as evidenced by numerous intertexts, direct or oblique. A presence sometimes in tension, as occurs with the image that Galdós offers of Madrid –always very physical–, unlike the abstract vision that J. M. de Pereda had of the Court. The physical and moral traits of a female character –Charito– are also analyzed, as a possible preview of Fortunata: that is, the Galdosian paradigm of the mujer del pueblo. Finally, we point out some metafictional aspects of Rosalía, especially the simile of the novel as a river whose flow reflects the nature that surrounds it. The waters are often clear and, at times, dark, deep. Thus, a double-edged realism: public and social existence and, in parallel, psychic living, perhaps subconscious.