Benito PTrez Gald=s, who was Spain’s preeminent 19th-century novelist, could not escape the cervantismo plaguing every Spanish author since Don Quijote appeared. This affiliation entails an
Oedipal love-hate relationship with Cervantes, mirroring Cervantes’ own ambivalence toward chivalric romances. Larsen (Spanish, U. of Wyoming, Laramie) analyzes the manifestations of this
affliction in Gald=s’ masterwork, Fortuna y Jacinta (1886-87). Specifically, he shows how the novel embedded within Cervantes’ magnum opus, La Novela del curioso impertinente (＂The Tale of
Foolish Curiosity＂), left its legacy in parallels in Gald=s’ epic of Spanish middle class life in the second half of the 19th century. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
