Saragossa - Galdós, Benito Pérez

. .

Résumé :
Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor (1899) is a novel by Benito P?rez Gald?s. Published at the height of P?rez Gald?s' career, Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor is the sixth in of 46 historical novels in the author's monumental, career spanning series of National Episodes. Set during the bloody naval battle of Trafalgar in 1805, P?rez Gald?s' novel is a story of heroism, growth, and adventure that manages to find humanity in history. It was, I believe, the evening of the eighteenth when we saw Saragossa in the distance. As we entered by the Puerta de Sancho we heard the clock in the Torre Nueva strike ten. We were in an extremely pitiful condition as to food and clothing. The long journey we had made [...], climbing mountains, fording rivers, making short cuts until we arrived at the high road of Gallur and Alagon, had left us quite used up, worn out, and ill with fatigue. Having survived the disastrous defeat of the Spanish Armada at Trafalgar by the British Royal Navy, Gabriel de Araceli makes his way to Saragossa. There, he must fight for his life and the future of his nation as the army of Napoleon Bonaparte lays siege to the city. Painstakingly researched by its author, Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor is a detailed fictional retelling of one history's most iconic conflicts. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Benito P?rez Gald?s's Saragossa: A Story of Spanish Valor is a classic of Spanish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Biographie:

Benito P?rez Gald?s (1843-1920) was a Spanish novelist. Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, he was the youngest of ten sons born to Lieutenant Colonel Don Sebasti?n P?rez and Do?a Dolores Gald?s. Educated at San Agustin school, he travelled to Madrid to study Law but failed to complete his studies. In 1865, P?rez Gald?s began publishing articles on politics and the arts in La Naci?n. His literary career began in earnest with his 1868 Spanish translation of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers. Inspired by the leading realist writers of his time, especially Balzac, P?rez Gald?s published his first novel, La Fontana de Oro (1870). Over the next several decades, he would write dozens of literary works, totaling 31 fictional novels, 46 historical novels known as the National Episodes, 23 plays, and 20 volumes of shorter fiction and journalism. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times without winning, P?rez Gald?s is considered the preeminent author of nineteenth century Spain and the nation's second greatest novelist after Miguel de Cervantes. Do?a Perfecta (1876), one of his finest works, has been adapted for film and television several times.