Dona Perfecta

Book Excerpt: The first novel in which the new interest was predominant was the present book, Doña Perfecta, finished in April, 1876. In it Galdós brought the new and the old face to face: the new in the form of a highly trained, clear-thinking, frank-speaking modern man; the old in the guise of a whole community so remote from the current of things that its religious intolerance, its social jealousy, its undisturbed confidence and pride in itself must of necessity declare instant war upon ...