Time marks the tempo; Pereda, Manzoni and the meteorological novel

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to analyze the way of presenting time in the novels of Manzoni and Pereda and how it influences when characterizing the characters. It also establishes the difference between the meteorological novel and the novel that simply uses time as a context or protagonist without placing too much emphasis on its function within the work. The two precursors to the meteorological novel are Jane Austen’s Emma (1806) and Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor (1819). Regarding the work of Manzoni, I promessi sposi, this uses time as a key element in shaping the story, whose weather works always accompanies the tone of the novel. In Pereda the same thing happens: the characters of Peñas above (don Celso, Facia and Marcelo) are vehicles of time. in this way, the reader becomes accustomed to relate a specific character to a certain time. The research concludes that Peñas arriba e I promessi sposi are the maximum examples of 19th century meteorological novel.