191
J. Casalduero has already taken issue with Ricard on this point. See «Galdós: de Morton a Almudena», Modern Language Notes, LXXIX (1964), pp. 181-187.
192
R. Ricard, art. cit., p. 25.
193
See P. Flamand, Les communautés israélites du Sud-marocain [Casablanca, 1960].
194
See the reprint of the article cited above in R. Ricard, Galdós et ses Romans, Paris, 1961, p. 62.
195
R. Ricard, art. cit., p. 14.
196
D. Lida, «De Almudena y su lenguaje», Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, XV (1961), pp. 297-308, at p. 304.
197
D. Lida, art. cit., p. 308.
198
Among the noteworthy interpretations and critical studies are Rupert C. Allen, «Pobreza y neurosis en Misericordia, de Pérez Galdós», Hispanófila 33 (1968), 35-47; Joaquín Casalduero, «Significado y forma de Misericordia», PMLA 59 (1944), 1104-1110, and «Galdós: De Morton a Almudena», Modern Language Notes 79 (1964), 181-187; Vernon A. Chamberlin, «The Significance of the Name Almudena in Galdós' Misericordia», Hispania 47 (1964), 491-496; Gustavo Correa, «La santificación por la caridad en Misericordia» in El simbolismo religioso en las novelas de Pérez Galdós (Madrid, 1962), pp. 195-215; Denah Lida, «De Almudena y su lenguaje», Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 15 (1961), 297-308; Robert Ricard, Galdós et ses romans (Paris, 1961); Robert H. Russell, «The Christ Figure in Misericordia», Anales Galdosianos 2 (1967), 103-130; J. E. Verey, «Charity in Misericordia», Galdós Studies I (London, 1970), pp. 164-194; and María Zambrano, La España de Galdós (Madrid, 1959), pp. 87-114. In regard to the genesis of Misericordia as a whole, José Fradejas Lebrero in «Para las fuentes de Galdós» (Revista de Literatura 4 [1953], 319-344) notes several strikin parallels between the work of Galdós and that of Francisco Cutanda entitled Doña Francisca, el portento de la caridad (1869). Both Doña Francisca and Benina are exemplary in their charity, both are rejected by those whom they help, both end up in jail, and both are the object of love and veneration of younger men who at first feel a physical love which is then transformed into something spiritual and even filial in nature. In addition, both novels include unexpected inheritances that save the family. It is also interesting to note that Cutanda's novel contains an episode in which Doña Francisca comes to the aid of a Moor, «vendedor de babuchas y dátiles», who is assaulted by the crowd because he did not remove his hat «al pasar el Santísimo Sacramento» (p. 334). For a complete listing of Galdós' biblical references in Misericordia see Joseph Schraibman, «Las citas bíblicas en Misericordia de Galdós», Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 250-252 (1970-71), 490-504.
199
Robert Ricard has taken notice of how Almudena is presented in the novel. His conclusions, however, stress the purely Semitic aspects of Almudena and not his specifically Jewish identify. Though he has later revised his analysis of Almudena's religious significance and admitted that Almudena was probably an accurate reproduction of a poor Jew of Morocco, he does not analyze the novel from this new perspective. See op. cit., pp. 51-62.
200
Galdós, Obras completas (Madrid, 1970), V, p. 1876. All the quotations from Misericordia are cited from this edition.