Benito Pérez Galdós
Paperback | Pages: 186 pages Rating: 3.86 | 1586 Users | 112 Reviews
Details Epithetical Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
| Title | : | Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1) |
| Author | : | Benito Pérez Galdós |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Colección Fontana #65 |
| Pages | : | Pages: 186 pages |
| Published | : | November 10th 2006 by Edicomunicación (first published 1873) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Spain. European Literature. Spanish Literature |
Chronicle Toward Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
This year I am engaging in a project that I hope to complete in five years. I would like to read the 46 novels that make up Galdos’s “National Episodes” (Episodios Nacionales). These are divided into five series; the first four are made up of ten novels and the last one of the remaining six. My goal is to read a series a year.
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) was a Spanish writer (born in the Canary Islands) who continued the realist and naturalist vein of Balzac, Dickens, Zola etc.. His most famous novel is Fortunata y Jacinta - Volumen I (view spoiler)[and I have just realized that Auerbach’s second chapter in Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature studies this novel (hide spoiler)]. He also wrote for the theatre and for the press; but his magnum opus is, of course, this series of historical (contemporary?) fiction.
It seems that originally he planned to write only two series, and this is apparently confirmed by his taking leave of his reader at the end of the twentieth episode. He wrote these first two sets from 1873 to 1879, and they deal with the period from 1805 to 1833. Given the great success, he resumed them in 1898 and finished the complete set in 1912. His protracted story finishes around 1880.
‘Trafalgar’, the first episode, deals with… Trafalgar (!). In Galdós’s scheme, this naval disaster for Spain functions as the closing seal of the eighteenth century and as a prelude for the nineteenth century, century during which the decadence of the country continued to elapse. ‘Trafalgar’ almost stands apart from the narrative that follows.
Galdós uses a fictional character, the young Gabriel de Araceli, an orphan who works as a sort of servant (a ‘paje’) in the family of a retired naval officer living near Cadiz, to act as witness and participant in the battle and tell us how it unfolded. Galdós had actually met a survivor of Trafalgar and his narration and detailed description of the battle and its ships, served as the starting point for Gabriel’s account.
A couple of elements struck me in this novel.
Among the ample and rich naval descriptions, Galdós focuses on one of the boats, the Santísima Trinidad, giving us a loving account of the grandiosity of this ship as seen through the eyes of young Gabriel. This was, in 1805, the largest armed ship in the world. Built in Cuba, with a glorious past as it participated as the Spanish flagship on the American side in their war of independence, but then sunk in this battle by Nelson’s forces. It remains under sea near Cádiz.
And then I realized that a boat that I had seen moored in the port of Alicante where I spend a few days in the summer--and which is used for touristy activities, such as shops and restaurants, but which I had not bothered to visit--, is a exact replica of this legendary boat. It makes me sad to think how tourism transforms a monument to ingenuity and to tragedy into something banal.
The tone that Galdós uses, when dealing with the political aspects, is also memorable. The concept of patriotism is defined through Gabriel’s impressionable mind. For him nations are like islands – unconnected units amongst which he first feels that his own stands out. He is at one stage full of patriotic feelings and pride (obviously before the disaster, as they set out to sea). But then when later the British enter his conquered boat and proclaim their victory Gabriel realizes that these ‘enemies’ are people like him and that they have similar feelings for their own nation as he has for his. The whole war scene and its sense change entirely for young Gabriel.
Death of Nelson, by Benjamin West, 1806.
So, Galdós does not vilify the enemy. The most he criticizes is, rightfully, the Government of Spain, in particular the Prime Minister Manuel Godoy (1767-1851) who yielded to France’s interests. As for France, Galdós does not feel too much pity, not just because the disaster could be ascribed to them since they were in command of the complete naval squad, but also because the Trafalgar disaster, for Napoleon, was counterweighed by his success in Ulm (one day before Trafalgar) and soon after in Austerlitz.
Godoy, by Goya, 1801.
Several of the historical heroes sail through these pages. The most outstanding are: Nelson himself, and his death is described with great respect and sorrow in these pages; the brave Collingwood; and a couple of the Spaniards. In particular the novel acquires an elegiac tone when dealing with Cosme Damián Churruca y Elorza (1761-1805). Churruca is presented in the early pages predicting the disaster of the battle; his disagreement with the strategy devised by the commanding French Admiral Villeneuve is given full vent; and his conviction of the utter futility that the alliance with France would be for Spain will find echoes in the rest of the Episodes. Churruca’s death is grievously lamented by the young Gabriel/Galdós.
Churruca
With this Episode over, I plan to follow Gabriel as he, I believe, leaves Cadiz and moves to Madrid in the next episode: La Corte de Carlos IV
*******
1/46
Next: La Corte de Carlos IV
*******
And then three days after I finished this I heard about this:
http://artdaily.com/news/101817/Nelso...
Define Books In Pursuance Of Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
| Original Title: | Trafalgar |
| ISBN: | 8476726651 (ISBN13: 9788476726655) |
| Edition Language: | Spanish |
| Series: | Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1 |
| Characters: | Gabriel de Araceli |
| Setting: | Spain |
Rating Epithetical Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
Ratings: 3.86 From 1586 Users | 112 ReviewsJudge Epithetical Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Benito Pérez Galdóss death. Though little-known outside of the Spanish-speaking world, his reputation within Spain is equivalent to Dickenss in England. He is especially important in Madrid, where he lived most of his life and where many of his books are set. At the Biblioteca Nacional there is an excellent exhibition about the writers life, including recorded interviews with present-day writers discussing the influence that Galdós had on their work.
Novela histórica cercana al género de aventuras en la que se relata la batalla de Traflagar y los sentimientos que envuelven a una contienda naval. Narrada con una prosa fácil a pesar de estar en un castellano en desuso que contribuye a crear el ambiente, entremezcla varias historias aunque las secundarias con poca profundidad. El dibujo de la época es magistral, y la descripción de la batalla demoledora, además de hacer algunas reflexiones interesantes por boca de Gulliermo, el narrador y
Novelita que se deja leer y da inicio al impresionante fresco histórico de los "Episodios nacionales".Curioso, compruebo lo que opinan otros lectores. Me ha gustado una reseña de una mujer que le da cuatro estrellas. Y quedo conmocionado con otra de una lectora que le maldá una estrellita. Esa reseña parece un despotrico contra su profe de literatura en la escuela, no contra la obra en sí.La prosa de Galdós fluye, y si hay algo que no le faltaba al escritor de 1873, año en que publicó Trafalgar,
Muy entretenido!Batallitas navales, desgracia española, aventuras y desventuras de nuestro prota...Muy bien narrado además.
Trafalgar, publicado em 1873, é o livro que inaugura o que viria a ser conhecido como os "Episódios Nacionales", conjunto de romances cobrindo desde a batalha naval napoleônica que dá nome a este livro, até os dias em que Benito Perez Galdós escrevia.Como conjunto, esse esforço ombreia com os Rougon-Macqart e a Comédia da Vida Humana; na verdade, segundo a crítica, chega a ser superior ao primeiro pela ausência de uma tese naturalista e ao segundo pelo fato de ser um quadro completo, não
A los diez u once años leí Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1950) de C. S. Forester, mi primera novela sobre las batallas y escaramuzas navales en la época napoleónica. Me enganchó y me consideré afortunado de encontrar y disfrutar todos los volúmenes de la serie a lo largo de casi una década, gracias a la maravillosa y hoy extinta biblioteca del Instituto Venezolano Británico en Caracas. Años después, un profesor amigo me introdujo al mundo más sombrío de Bolitho, de Alexander Kent (pseudónimo) y más
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