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Abstract
In 1884–1885 Galdós was sufficiently interested in the Basque city of San Sebastián to feel compelled to write about it, in different modes, on three separate occasions: in conversation snippets in La de Bringas, then in a travel article for the newspaper, La Prensa, of Buenos Aires, and finally, in an episode of Lo prohibido, centred on Chapter XIX. The main unifying theme of all three examples is the question of summer vacations spent by the élite of Madrid society in the northern seaside resort. Inherently connected themes include sexual laxity and spendthriftiness on female fashions. Their treatment varies accordingly, but in the two major examples, Galdós, whilst expressing admiration for the visual charms of the city and its environs, attacks the frivolous activities of the holiday-makers from Madrid. In Lo prohibido, events seen through the account of the narrator-protagonist’s pursuit of his cousin, Camila, are given an added literary function. Galdós’ late inclusion of a paragraph about the former’s decision to write his memoirs in San Sebastián has the effect of adding depth to the novel’s format, as well as increasing the challenge presented to the reader in interpreting it.
Notes
1 Gregorio Marañón, ‘San Sebastián’, in Obras completas, recopilación de textos & notas de Alfredo Juderías, intro. por Pedro Laín Entralgo, 10 vols (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1966–1977), IV, Artículos y trabajos, 895–96 (p. 895).
2 Benito Pérez Galdós, ‘San Sebastián’, in Obras inéditas, ordenadas & prologadas por Alberto Ghiraldo, 11 vols (Madrid: Renacimiento, 1923–1931), I, Fisonomías sociales, 15–25. Quotations from this article and others in the same volume will be followed by the abbreviation OI and the appropriate page number. Some other references are to be found in William H. Shoemaker, Las cartas desconocidas de Galdós en ‘La Prensa’ de Buenos Aires (Madrid: Cultura Hispánica, 1973). Quotations from this edition will be followed by the abbreviation Las cartas and the appropriate page number.
3 All quotations from the novel will be taken from Benito Pérez Galdós, Lo prohibido, ed., con intro., de James Whiston (Madrid: Cátedra, 2001) and will be followed by the appropriate page number.
4 Benito Pérez Galdós, La de Bringas, in Obras completas, intro., biografía, bibliografía, notas & censo de personajes galdosianos por Federico Carlos Sáinz de Robles, 6 vols (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1961–69), IV, Novelas, 1585–683.
5 1884 was the first year of his contract with the Buenos Aires newspaper and the only one in which he succeeded in honouring his assignment of providing bi-monthly contributions. The figure of 25 cartas per annum was never matched in the subsequent decade.
6 See Peter A. Bly, Viajes y crónicas: el caso de Galdós (Madrid: Ediciones del Orto, 2017).
7 According to José Luis Banús y Aguirre, El San Sebastián de antaño (San Sebastián: Grupo Doctor Camino de Historia Donostiarra, 1988), 226–27, San Sebastián (with a population of only 21,000 inhabitants in 1877, for example), enjoyed this status from the second half of the nineteenth century until the second decade of the twentieth.
8 It should be noted that the annual migration to northern resorts was a staple news item in Spanish newspapers, as Galdós himself had demonstrated in his first year (1865) as a journalist. The source for his information on the progress of the Court to Zarauz is culled from another newspaper. What is important to note is the use of a satirical tone that will become much sharper almost twenty years later in the La Prensa article:
En Zarauz hallaremos gran animación, gran afluencia de bañistas españoles y extranjeros, paniaguados de todas clases y calibres, entidades políticas de todas categorías, opiniones ambulantes, cortesías personificadas y estátuas de sal que no logra disolver el mar Cantábrico.
Allí se divierten de lo lindo, si no miente La Correspondencia de España, destartalada cronista del viaje real.
(for this quotation, see William H. Shoemaker, Los artículos de Galdós en ‘La Nación’ [Madrid: Ínsula, 1972], 123).
9 James Whiston, in his ‘Introducción’ to Galdós, Lo prohibido, ed. Whiston, 9–120 (p. 53), takes a more positive view of these scenes.
10 James Whiston, The Early Stages of Composition of Galdós’ ‘Lo prohibido’ (London: Tamesis, 1983), 14. Hereafter, the draft number will be followed by the respective page number.
11 Whiston, The Early Stages of Composition of Galdós’ ‘Lo prohibido’, 25.
12 No further mention is made of this superb mansion. Pío Baroja could only see in 1917 in his native city ‘unos hotelitos ramplones, pobretones y pretenciosos’ (Juventud, egolatría, prólogo de Julio Caro Baroja [Madrid: Taurus, 1977], 101).
13 The gym is located in Donosti’s old quarter, but the street name (left blank in 2M 537) is omitted.
14 In Marañón’s opinión, ‘el mar de San Sebastián es el más mar’ (‘San Sebastián’, 95). Banus y Aguirre pertinently reminds us that nineteenth-century sea-bathers, especially women, did not generally swim: ‘en aquel entonces la gente lo que hacía era meterse en el agua, bien agarrados [sic] a las cuerdas, o a las manos del bañero’ (El San Sebastián de antaño, 28).
15 In a surprising contrast with the paucity of place names provided during their stay in San Sebastián, the account of the day visit to Biarritz on their return from Bayonne has a superabundance of place and street names, not even found in 2M 546–48.
16 Interestingly, in 2M 578, Galdós associated Camila with Rosalía Bringas: whenever the former attends María Juana’s Monday tertulia the narrator becomes excited. At this juncture Galdós had pencilled in the top right-hand corner: ‘Iba la de Bringas’. This reminder appears to have been ignored in the published text, probably because she had already made a fleeting appearance—in Chapter XI—at María Juana’s Thursday tertulia (273).
17 Whiston, The Early Stages of Composition of Galdós’ ‘Lo prohibido’, 71–72.
18 Whilst he uses the verb ‘entretener’ for his own pastime, ‘divertir’ is employed to list those he will soon plan for Camila and Constantino.
19 Whiston calculates that José María’s writing speed surpasses that of Galdós in the completion of the first twelve chapters (Lo prohibido, ed. Whiston, 403, n. 308).
20 See Arthur Terry, ‘Lo prohibido: Unreliable Narrator and Untruthful Narrative’, in Galdós Studies, ed. J. E. Varey (London: Tamesis, 1970), 62–89.
21 See Eamonn Rodgers, ‘The Unfinished Anagnorisis: The Illness and Death of José María Bueno de Guzmán in Galdós’ Lo prohibido’, in Galdós’ House of Fiction: Papers Given at the Birmingham Galdós Colloquium (1986), ed. A. H. Clarke & E. J. Rodgers with the assistance of D. Mackenzie (Llangrannog: Dolphin, 1991), 127–41 (p. 129, n. 2); and Linda M. Willem, Galdós’s ‘Segunda Manera’: Rhetorical Strategies and Affective Response (Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Dept of Romance Languages, 1998), 165–66.
22 Benito Pérez Galdós, Cartas a Galdós presentadas por Soledad Ortega (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1964), 229.
23 Baroja, Juventud, egolatría, prólogo de Caro Baroja, 102.
24 Fernando Savater, San Sebastián (Barcelona: Destino, 1987), 31.
25 Baroja, Juventud, egolatría, prólogo de Caro Baroja, 101.
* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.