""FORTUNATA AND JACINTA" 100 YEARS OLD" "Fortunata and Jacinta have reached the age of 100." "In 1887, saw the birth of these two lively characters... two antagonistic women created by Benito Pérez Galdós." "A century on from the book's publication... it continues to be a cause for reflection today." ""Fortunata and Jacinta", two stories of married women... or one story of two women... that Galdós uses to perfectly represent two opposite worlds... the upper classes and the masses... to visit the hidden universe of... the human soul and feminine passion." "It is set in Madrid during the six revolutionary years.... and the preamble to the Restoration." "The whole novel is a result of Galdós' idea... of using social imbalances... as a screen on which to profile his characters." ""It was necessary for all Madrid to be transformed... for expropriation to build a new city... on the rubble of the convents... for the Marquis of Pontejos to tidy the place up... for the tariff reforms of '49 and '68... to shake up all commerce in Madrid... for the ingenuity of Salamanca to design the first railways... for the magic of steam to place Madrid at 40 hours from Paris... and, finally... for there to be many wars and revolutions... and great upheavals in individual wealth."" ""Fortunata and Jacinta" is more than a novel about customs." "Many critics agree that this novel... is the best story in Spanish literature after "Don Quixote"." "This isn't because of the richness of the story... which is almost like a pamphlet...* but because it is a philosophical depiction of the era..." "Galdós lived in, who made adventure... the high art of tireless observation." "Galdós was already 44... in a period which saw exceptional social and political change... the struggle of ideas, the intense activity of thought and change... that the nineteenth century involved." "Fortunata and Jacinta are two characters... who are a pretext for reflection." "You rogue." "I don't know how you're not in prison..." "There is no justice." "Thief!" "You're the thief." "What have I done?" "You call me a thief." "You, who robbed me." "You may be an angel." "But angels don't have children, I do." " You'll never have any..." " Shut up!" " Leave." " Hypocrite, vestry thorn!" "Sick of romping with priests, now you want to hear confession?" "Fortunata and Jacinta represent worlds that are so different... that their coming together has to be coincidental and distant." "Two parallel lives that love the same man... and which can only come together in a new being, the child... though for this to happen Fortunata has to die." "Thus, life and death join with the same logic as in reality." "They are not opposites, but one, with two inseparable poles... which make it understandable." "To live and die is the same adventure." "Fortunata dies and her son lives for Jacinta." "This is the culmination of the novel... an ending which is felt from the start." "The child represents the big question mark... which Galdós leaves us at the end of his long story." "What will become of this child?" "Change, the perpetuation of social inequalities... which the narration constantly criticizes?" "Don Benito Pérez Galdós couldn't know." "He just wrote a novel with characters... who were typical of the period." "Amongst these, Fortunata and Jacinta are the most developed." "Two women who show the uses and customs of the society... in which they are born, and in which they live, suffer and die." "And around them, different characters... guide them, bringing them closer and distancing them." "Characters with all the glory and meanness... of Spanish and Madrilenian society in the 19th century... not so distant from us." "100 years, to be precise." ""At the funeral of Mrs. de Rubín... the luxury of the funeral carriage... contrasts with the lack of followers... there were only two or three." "Ballester went first... who, to not be alone, had made his friend the critic go along." "On the long route from La Cava to the cemetery... which was in the south..." "Segismundo told Ponce... everything he knew about the life of Fortunata... without omitting the last bit... without any doubt, the best part." "The renowned literary critic replied to this... by saying it had the elements of a novel or drama... though he thought the artistic fabric... would need certain adaptations... so that the vulgarity of life... could become aesthetically pleasing." "He couldn't stand life becoming art just as it was... without being spiced up and seasoned... and left to simmer until well-cooked." "Segismundo wasn't of that opinion... and they both put forward convincing arguments... each sticking to their ideas and convictions... concluding that raw fruit is good when it's ripe... as are pastries... if the cook knows what they're doing."" "Galdós great novel finishes with Fortunata's funeral... and her husband, Maximiliano RubÍn, going to an asylum." "This is also where the stories of the book's characters end... each one of which could have provided... another narrative process, just as extensive and rich." "They all exist, as, in some way, they are real, everyday, close." "Juan Santa Cruz, Jacinta's husband and Fortunata's lover... incapable of love, superficial, fanciful... irresponsible and egocentric, unfaithful to women... because he is continually fleeing from himself." "The masses have no morals or dignity." "They are only moved by interest and passions..." "It's incredible that it amused me." "I was blind." "She was a wild animal, she couldn't read or write... but she had a good heart." "The mad and renowned Don José Ido del Sagrario... aspiring writer, Madrilenian and poor... who Galdós knew in real life... and who they say inspired Don Benito to write his tale." "Many think that being a liberal means shouting... and insulting priests, demanding abolitions, not working... saying that the authorities must die." "Not at all." "What can be deduced from all this?" "When there is misunderstood liberty and many abolitions... the rich get scared and send their money abroad." "With no money flowing, the market's bad, nothing's sold." "The laborer, who shouted so much, has nothing to eat." "That's what I say..." ""Logic, man, logic"." "Nobody will change my mind." "Guillermina Pacheco, the saint..." ""virgin and founder", as the author describes her." ""The ecclesiastical rat", always looking for people in need... intermediary between the irreconcilable worlds... of "Fortunata and Jacinta"." "You have no morals." "You're a savage without principles." "You've the passions of the rough, like an unploughed field." "No more lies, sir, I can't take it." "Save this soul that wishes to be lost... and take me from these lies." "The atrocities you speak of are my fault." "You thought you were speaking only to me." "But I have deceived you." "Doña Lupe, with the money, Fortunata's aunt." "Bourgeois with more aspirations than possibilities... astute and good-hearted, deep down, a greedy moneylender... with a double personality, split between kindness and meanness... that gives a depth to this attractive character." "Well, go there then... you'll stay there for 3 or 4 months." "I've got the place thanks to a good friend." "If, after this time, your spirit turns out to be... fitting for our family... you could maybe become so." "Maxi RubÍn, sick and weak... dependant on the care of others..." "Fortunata's husband and the true martyr of history." "I've been stupid until tonight... as I had no objective in my life, like stupid people... who have no mission to complete." "Fortunata, you have opened a new world for me." ""Tough" Mauricia, Fortunata's only friend... a fringe character, aggressive and tender... until her death, a defenseless victim... of the social inequalities that she wouldn't accept." "I know Lupe better than the back of my hand." "When you see her, ask her about Mauricia... you'll see how she raves about me." "The bread I've taken her!" "They call me "Tough"... but they should call her "Stingy"." "That's how it is." "She's got millions in the bank, she's a clever one." "I've seen her nephew once or twice." "I heard he was stupid, neither use nor ornament." "All the better for you, girl." "If your husband's stupid, you can sing hallelujah." "And Don Evaristo Feijoo... a strange character who flits in and out of the novel... but who represents the logic of the plot." "There is almost unanimous agreement that Galdós... represents himself through Don Evaristo Feijoo." "Ironic, bachelor, traveler... free-thinking, anticlerical and fond of women." "A pretext for... setting out the ideas of Pérez Galdós throughout the story... ideas on life, politics, society and love." "I've a good life, and can give the same to whoever accommodates me." "It's you that must decide." "With my proposal you can be as honorable as you wish." "We'll find a discrete house... to meet and maintain our relationship." "The more honorable you are, the better." "We'll avoid scandal." "I'll give you complete liberty, you can come and go... and do whatever you want." "Without deceiving me." "I want you to be loyal to me, as I will be to you." "And when you get bored, tell me." ""Love is the demand of a species that wants perpetuate itself." "Stimulated by this need, which is as preserving as eating... men and women seek one another... and unions are verified by fatal choice... greater than, and unconnected to, all society's artifices." "Look at a man and a woman." "What is it?" "The demand of a species that wants a new being... who will demand to be given life by its parents." "All the rest is just music." "Fatuity and talk... of those wanting to make a society in their studies... away from the immortal bases of nature." "This is crystal clear!" "Which is why I laugh at certain laws... and the whole penal-social code of love... which is a jumble of nonsense invented by the ugly... clowns and ignorant savants... who have never had the slightest favor from a female."" " Come." " Turn out the light." " Why?" " Turn it out." "Come closer, you'll fall out of bed." "Your hands are cold." "Do you love me?" "Of course I do." "Jacinta represents existential plenitude and security... and she hides comfortably in these." "She's scared of ugliness, and reality isn't always pleasant." "So she flees." "She doesn't understand passions, as she has been denied them." "She's faithful, loyal, understanding and patient." "She accepts life as it has been programmed." "She doesn't decide." "She's sweet, and life doesn't demand that she mature." "Her only pain is her infertility." "Her only envy is that which is impossible: a child." "When she gets one, she reacts with an unexpected hardness... which was deep inside her." "She throws her unfaithful husband out and spurns him forever." "There is no forgiveness." "She knows the child she desired... is the fruit of an insurmountable injustice." "Jacinta closes the door of hope... and devotes herself to the child of her enemy." "Jacinta, let's talk seriously." "What about?" "Listen, I think we can..." "We have to talk... about the child and us, I've been asking you for weeks." "Come here and talk to me." "Juan." "I don't need you, or rely on you." "Nothing that happens to you can affect me." "You have all the liberty you want... if you ever didn't use it, out of respect for me." "As if I don't exist?" "Yes, that's how it will be from now on." "Couldn't we find a way...?" "Fortunata is one of the masses, poor, ignorant, healthy, coarse... full of life and true passion... to whom the parasite Juan Santa Cruz goes, to suck in... all that his rich, enslaving world lacks... to try and know about valor, affection, sincerity... qualities which Fortunata spontaneously provides." "Fortunata did know how to love." "Her love for Juan Santa Cruz knew no limits... and Galdós uses both... as opposite symbols of Spanish 19th century society." "Santa Cruz is the ruling class of the Restoration... vain, superficial, hypocritical and not at all enterprising." "Only their child... could be the symbol of a new and difficult hope." "Fortunata is a true Madrilenian, from La Cava itself." "She knew how to love, and she died for love." "Of all the characters, she wasn't the saddest." "My father had a stall on the market... and my mother, like my aunt, a hen and egg business." "They called me "Kid", as I was puny and small." "When I was 12 I suddenly grew." "But they couldn't see me because they had died." "I lived and worked with my aunt." "I met a man." "Carry on" " It's best I say no more." " Why?" "I'll upset you." "It doesn't matter." "Very well then." "I met a man." "I was pregnant when he left me." "I was lost with nowhere to go." "I accepted the help of another man, an ironmonger." "We went round the towns together." "My child was born, but became ill after a year." "His father came to see him die." "He paid for the funeral and left me with the other man." "The other man spent all the money on drink." "Wine and liquor finished him off." " Then, when..." " Stop." " What was he called?" " Who?" "The first man, that monster." "Juan." "Did you love him?" "I still love him." "If I saw him in danger, I'd risk myself to save him." "And if he turned up here and said..." ""Fortunata, come", would you go?" "That depends." "I'd either go or I wouldn't." "Do you know what sin and blame are?" "Yes, I know." "You save yourself if you repent, but if you love someone... you commit no sin and carry no blame." "Do you know about God, the Virgin, Jesus?" "I think they're good, but I know little of them." "Have I hurt you?" ""These idiots may think they've deceived me" "This is Leganés." "I accept." "I accept it and keep quiet, suppressing my will... to what the world wants to do to me." "They won't lock my thoughts behind walls." "I live amongst the stars." "They can put Maximiliano Rubín in a palace or a dungheap... it's all the same." "Madrid, June 1887."" "That's how Galdós finished his novel." "The madness of weak Rubín is the end... of a predatory and conflictive world... for those who allow themselves to doubt... to love without rational limits and to not know the rules of the game." "In reality, Fortunata and Jacinta never met." "The abyss that separated them had to be vast." "And they never actually existed, as Galdós said..." ""The novelist gets raw material from the public..."