Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, Discurso pronunciado por el Excmo. Señor D...., 10 de noviembre, 1890, Ateneo de Madrid (Madrid: Imp. y Fundición de M. Tello, 1890). The law of universal mate suffrage provided for the first «democratic» elections in 1891 (women and males under 25 years of age were excluded from the polls). Prior to 1890, there had been so many restrictions on voting rights that the electorate was a mere 800,000 men (in 1891, 4,805,000 men voted), or less than 5 % of the general population of te country. Even with the so-called universal suffrage, the voters constituted only 27 % of the general population (v Miguel M. Cuadrado, Elecciones y partidos políticos de España (1868-1931) [Madrid: Taurus, 1969], 11, 529-531). Nevertheless, Cánovas called for vigilant management of the polls by Spain's ruling classes because universal suffrage (the law of universal suffrage was promulgated on 26 June, 1890) made socialism a «[...] tendencia, si blen amenazadora, indisputablemente legal. (31)» It must be stated, however, that Cánovas' advocacy of electoral management was well-known and longstanding, pre-dating the Ateneo speech. His man for such work was Romero Robledo, about whom we have heard Galdós speak (v text above). The Ateneo speech calls for the continuation of such policies, but is more implicit than explicit in this regard. Because of the well-known preferences of Cánovas, tactful indirectness was sufficient.

«La religión y las religiones», Conferencia, Sociedad El Sitio (Bilbao), reprinted in BILE, XXXIII (1909), 339-352. The passage cited is from page 345.

I. e., relationships, because they are not concrete, are meaningless. Excellent anthropological profiles of criminals may be found in the fascinating, well-done work, La mala vida en Madrid by Constancio Bernaldo de Quirós and J. M.ª Llanas Aguilaniedo (Madrid: B. Rodríguez Serra, 1901).

La política católica en España (Madrid: Angel B. Velasco, 1894), p. 6. Another contemporary, Benito Mariano Andrade, explores writers' interest in those who were losers in the social struggle for survival in his La antropologia criminal y la novela naturalista (Madrid: Est. Tip. «Sucesores de Rivadeneyra», 1896). Obviously, positivism was one of the great stimuli for such literary exploration, since it suggested that aberrant behavior could be empirically related to specific physiological characteristics of the individual. Hence, if deviance was rooted in physical causes, one could alter behavior by isolating and neutralizing the physical defect itself. In literature, this meant the precise, indeed almost microscopic examination of the anti-social or deviant character in order to find its linkage with the specific physical problem. Galdós' greatness and achievement lie in the fact that he came to understand the limits of such examination. Those of us familiar with the microscope will remember that the farther away from view the subject being examined, the sharper its outlines. But as we increase the power of the microscope lens, thereby viewing the subject at a closer range optically, it becomes less clear, its outlines blurred. On the other hand, we see detaild which was not visible from afar. That is, the closer we get to our subjet, the less clear, more complex it becomes. And the more complex our answer becomes, as Galdós came to realize. See also nn. 21, 22, 27 above.

Many of Galdós' contemporaries considered the anarchist terrorist to have some of these qualities. Bernaldo de Quirós, a fine criminal anthropologist and student of rural lower class unrest (v his important El espartaquismo agrario andaluz [Madrid: Reus, 1919]), published a paper in which he affirmed that the terrorist was motivated by universal love, piety and abnegation. Paradoxically, the terrorist acted out of both egotism and sacrifice («Psicología del crimen anarquista», Archivos de psiquiatría, criminología y ciencias afines [Buenos Aires], XII [1913], 122-126): «Vengadores de la multitud de heridos por el hambre y por el frío y aplastados por el dolor, llegan al delito, feroz y sanguinario, en las formas desesperadas que parecen a algunos suicidios indirectos... (126)»

For the influence of extra-literary phenomena on the aesthetics of the novel, v e.g., Peter B. Goldman, «Toward a Sociology of the Modern Spanish Novel: The Early Years», Part I, MLN, LXXXIX (1974), 173-190, and Part II, MLN, XC (1975), 183-211. Juan Ignacio Ferreras has published several works on the subject: Teoría y Praxis de la Novela (París: Hispanoamericanas, 1970); Introducción a una sociología de la novela española del XIX (Madrid: Edicusa, 973); La novela por entregas 1840-1900 (Madrid: Taurus, 1972); and Los orígenes de la novela decimonónica 1800-1830 (Madrid: Taurus, 1973). Some of Ferreras' conclusions are questioned by Goldman, but there is no doubt that Ferreras' work in its entirety will be an important reference on the subject for some time to come. One other work deserving mention is that of Jean Vilar, Literatura y economía, a book dealing with the sociological aspects of literature, focussing on the seventeenth century (Madrid: Revista de Occidente, 1974).

Benito Pérez Galdós, Memorias en Obras inéditas X, Alberto Ghiraldo, ed. (Barcelona: 1930), p. 72. Las referencias a las páginas de la novela irán entre paréntesis en el texto con la abreviatura FyJ.

Benito Pérez Galdós, «Santos modernos» en Cronicón (1886-1890), Obras inéditas VII (Madrid: s. a.), p. 12. En adelante. S.M. y la página entre paréntesis en el texto. Véase también Lucille V. Braun, «Galdós' Re-creation of Ernestina Manuel de Villena as Guillermina Pacheco», HR, XXXVIII (1970), p. 40.

En las pp. 8 y 9 de «Santos modernos» donde trata Galdós este tema, aduce otras explicaciones por la falta de santos canonizados en su época: p. ej., «el gran abuso que se venía haciendo en los siglos pasados de tales patentes» y la multiplicación de carreras abiertas a los hombres, a diferencia de la antigüedad en que la elección se reducía a «las armas y la fe».

Braun, art. cit., pp. 40-45 y passim.