The master of the realist novel of nineteenth-century Spain, Benito Pérez Galdós, is the subject of these new studies. The master of the realist novel of nineteenth-century Spain, Benito Pérez Galdós, is the subject of New Galdós Studies, offered in memory of John Varey, author of Galdós Studies, the foundational text for contemporary Galdosian scholarship. Eamonn Rodgers describes Galdós's early readership and reception; James Whiston illustrates Galdós's creativity in Lo prohibido; Rhian Davies explores the enrichment of the novelist's language in Torquemada en la Cruz; Teresa Fuentes Peris demonstrates Galdós's radical critique of dominant social assumptions in Fortunata y Jacinta; Alex Longhurst deals with the representation of poverty in Misericordia while Lisa Condé detects a feminist intention in Tristana; Eric Southworth finds rich cultural and spiritual allusion in the same work; Nichols Round relates the deaths of children in the Torquemada novels and Angel Guerra to end-of-century ideological concerns.

A study of Galdós' Jewish characters and what they tell us about the place of Jews in C19th Spanish society and culture. Few Spanish novelists have dealt with the problem of religion and religious commitment more comprehensively than Benito Pérez Galdós. His lifelong preoccupation with man in search of transendence repeatedly led him to evaluate andcriticize the religious institutions that stifled rather than helped man in his search. In the Jews, Galdós saw a people who, though victimized by religious intolerance, managed to survive persecution and affirm an abiding faithin God. He created Jewish characters throughout his long literary career and therefore presents the most comprehensive portrait of Jews as they existed in the culture, the religion and fabric of C19th Spanish society.

The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel presents the development of the modern Spanish novel from 1600 to the present. Drawing on the combined legacies of Don Quijote and the traditions of the picaresque novel, these essays focus on the question of invention and experiment, on what constitutes the singular features of evolving fictional forms. It examines how the novel articulates the relationships between history and fiction, high and popular culture, art and ideology, and gender and society. Contributors highlight the role played by historical events and cultural contexts in the elaboration of the Spanish novel, which often takes a self-conscious stance toward literary tradition. Topics covered include the regional novel, women writers, and film and literature. This companionable survey, which includes a chronology and guide to further reading, conveys a vivid sense of the innovative techniques of the Spanish novel and of the debates surrounding it.