A review by nwhyte
Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1162077...[return][return]It took me a long time to get around to reading it, and also a long time to read it - it is over 800 pages. But it is rather good. [return][return]Fortunata and Jacinta are two women in 1870s Madrid who both love Juanito Santa Cruz, the scion of a dynasty of clothing magnates; Fortunata is working class and bears him a child; Jacinta, his cousin, marries him by a family arrangement which becomes largely a love match. Most of the book is about Fortunata's ups and downs as she bounces from man to man, Santa Cruz always in the background, and Jacinta vaguely and uneasily aware of her rival.[return][return]P