Mariucha
Public-domain ebook
Mariucha
Language: en5,103 downloads on Project Gutenberg
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Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #24917.
About this book
The work is a comedy by Benito Pérez Galdós, presented here as a stage play rather than a novel. The opening pages are not a dramatic scene at all but a prefatory essay in which the editor explains why the more celebrated El abuelo was set aside in favor of Mariucha. The argument is that Mariucha offers “clean‑cut, open problems of daily life” that translate easily for American students, avoiding the “vague and abstract moral” and the “dubious obscurity” of its predecessor. The introduction then moves into a concise biography of Galdós, tracing his shift from prolific novelist to dramatist and situating his theatrical output within the broader currents of late‑nineteenth‑ and early‑twentieth‑century Spanish drama.
Galdós writes in a prose‑driven style that mirrors his novelistic habit of extensive dialogue and psychological detail, tempered by the conventions of the period’s realist theatre. The language is formal Spanish, yet the humor and domestic situations are accessible to readers familiar with turn‑of‑the‑century social settings. Those who enjoy character‑rich comedies, literary history, or the transition from novel to stage will find Mariucha a rewarding glimpse into a writer who sought to bring everyday Spanish life to the footlights while retaining his narrative breadth.
Characters in Mariucha
- MariuchaYoung Spanish woman, late 1800s, dark hair in a modest bun, simple dress, gentle expression
The opening · free to read
Some one will naturally ask: "Why did not the editor select Galdós' best play, El abuelo, for publication?" I should like to reply to this question in advance. El abuelo, with all its beauties, has certain features which make it slightly undesirable for use by classes of American students in High Schools and the elementary years of College. First, one of its beauties is itself a drawback for this particular purpose; namely, the rather vague and abstract moral it conveys. Then, the main-spring of the plot, like that of Electra, lies in a dubious obscurity to which it is not necessary to direct the attention of young people. Mariucha, on the other hand, presents clean-cut, open problems of daily life, and they are also problems which any American can readily understand, not local Spanish anachronisms. I chose Mariucha believing it to be the best fitted for general class use among all the dramas of Galdós; and I hope that Spanish teachers may not find me wrong.
The Introduction is confined to a discussion of Galdós as a dramatic author, since a study of his entire work or of his influence on his generation would be quite out of place.
To my friend and colleague Professor Erasmo Buceta I am deeply grateful for generous and suggestive help; and I am indebted to Doña María Pérez-Galdós de Verde for information which gives the Bibliography an accuracy it could not otherwise have had.
S.G.M.
October, 1920.
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