Particularize 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 |
Benito Pérez Galdós
Paperback | Pages: 186 pages Rating: 3.86 | 1586 Users | 112 Reviews
Define Based On 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 |
Representaion As 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...
Rating Based On Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
Ratings: 3.86 From 1586 Users | 112 ReviewsCriticism Based On Books Trafalgar (Episodios Nacionales, Primera Serie #1)
Read in Spanish.The Spanish realist writer Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) was the leading literary figure in Spain during the 19th century and has sometimes been considered to be secondary only to Cervantes in stature in that countrys literary tradition. Despite having been compared favorably to Balzac in France, Tolstoy in Russia, and Dickens in England, he and his works were not well known outside of Spain until the last half century. He was a prolific author of novels and plays, and heNovelita 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,
CLO para tercer bimestre.Sorpresa grata, llena de viejos maromeros (me encantan), héroes, princesas y batallas. villanos, estrategias, personas de a pie que piensan mejor que los generales. Corto, preciso, enérgico.
Aunque los pasajes más bélicos no me han interesado demasiado, la faceta histórico-didáctica es muy interesante. Además, es maravillosa la forma en que los personajes "de a pie" cobran vida, su forma de hablar, la manera en que Galdós les dota de una fuerte personalidad con un par de pinceladas. Leer literatura así es un enorme placer. Qué maravilla.
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
-Del suceso en sí mismo y de la España de su(s) tiempo(s).-Género. Novela Histórica.Lo que nos cuenta. Gabriel Araceli recuerda su primera juventud en la que, después de criarse en el barrio de la Viña de Cádiz, entra al servicio de un capitán de Marina retirado, va conociendo distintos aspectos de la vida que desconocía y acaba siendo testigo participante de la batalla naval de Trafalgar en el seno de las Guerras Napoleónicas. Primer volumen de la primera serie de Los Episodios Nacionales.
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