The Practice of Realism

Fortunata y Jacinta is the magnum opus of Benito Perez Galdos, acknowledged in the field of Spanish letters as second only in importance to Cervantes. This study is an analysis of the different parts of the manuscript as "palimpsest," or layering of texts from the early manuscript drafts of the work to its printed edition, produced in successive stages to create a better version than the last. The analysis seeks to lay bare important aspects of the creative process of composition in the astounding cultural phenomenon that is the nineteenth-century realist novel, assessing in what ways any changes from earlier to later drafts may provide an understanding of the genius of creation in this particular literary form.