Javier López Quintáns. “El fracaso existencial en los personajes de la narrativa de Emilia Pardo Bazán”. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 2008, 490 pp.

Abstract

Javier López Quintáns is the author of the excellent monograph on Emilia Pardo Bazán reviewed here. It is a book that analyzes the narrative of the Galician writer and focuses on the existential problems of her characters, which the author unravels through the functionalism proposed by Greimas. It delves into the existential failure of the characters, explained by Pardo Bazán's worldview and by various currents of thought spread in his time. The review comments on each part, since the book focuses on several specific characters to explain her situation and the points in common with other novels and stories from La Coruña. The conclusion is the repetition of the tragic destiny of practically all the characters and other interesting narrative aspects are emphasized. The final bibliography is very complete and the entire analysis presents new qualities, which do not cling to tradition.