What do you think?
Rate this book
His Only Son: with Doña Berta
The unlikely hero of His Only Son, Bonifacio Reyes, is a romantic and a flautist by vocation—and a failed clerk and kept husband by necessity—who dreams of a novelesque life. Tied to his shrill and sickly wife by her purse strings, he enters timidly into a love affair with Serafina, a seductive second-rate opera singer, encouraged by her manager who mistakes Bonifacio for a potential patron. Meanwhile, Bonifacio’s wife experiences a parallel awakening and in the midst of a long-barren marriage, surprises them both with a son—but is it Bonifacio’s? In the accompanying novella, Doña Berta, the heroine of the title, an aged, poor, but well-born woman, forfeits her beloved estate in search of a portrait that may be all that remains of the secret love of her life.
While largely unknown outside of Spain, Leopoldo Alas was one of the most celebrated writers of criticism in nineteenth-century Spain and employed his satirical talents to powerful and humorous effect in fiction. His Only Son was Alas’s second and final novel, full of characteristic humor, naturalistic detail, descriptive beauty, and moral complexity. His frail and pitiful characters—irrational, emotional actors drawn inexorably toward their foolish fates—are yet multidimensional individuals, often conscious of their own weaknesses and stymied by their very yearnings to be more than the parts they find themselves playing.
While largely unknown outside of Spain, Leopoldo Alas was one of the most celebrated writers of criticism in nineteenth-century Spain and employed his satirical talents to powerful and humorous effect in fiction. His Only Son was Alas’s second and final novel, full of characteristic humor, naturalistic detail, descriptive beauty, and moral complexity. His frail and pitiful characters—irrational, emotional actors drawn inexorably toward their foolish fates—are yet multidimensional individuals, often conscious of their own weaknesses and stymied by their very yearnings to be more than the parts they find themselves playing.
323 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1892
6 people are currently reading
205 people want to read
About the author
Leopoldo Alas
371 books90 followersLeopoldo García-Alas y Ureña (25 April 1852 – 13 June 1901), also known as Clarín, was a Spanish realist novelist born in Zamora. He died in Oviedo.
Alas spent his childhood living in León and Guadalajara, until he moved to Oviedo in 1863. There he studied for the Bachillerato (B.A. degree) and began his law studies. He lived in Madrid from 1871 to 1878, where he began his career as a journalist (adopting the pen-name "Clarín" in 1875) and he graduated with the thesis El Derecho y la Moralidad (Law and Morality) in 1878. He taught in Zaragoza from 1882 to 1883. In 1883 he returned to Oviedo to take up a position as professor of Roman law.
Above all, Clarín is the author of La Regenta, his masterpiece and one of the best novels of the 19th century. It is a long work, similar to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, one of its influences. Other influences included Naturalism and Krausism, a philosophical current which promoted the cultural and ethical regeneration of Spain.
La Regenta is special for its great wealth of characters and secondary stories, while the main character's description is left slightly unfocused and vague. On the other hand, the downfall of the provincial lady has a place amidst two very diverse suitors: the most handsome man in the city and the cathedral's priest. The depiction of this priest is a key part of the book.
For the description of the provincial atmosphere and the city's collective life, Clarín used techniques such as the internal monologue or the free indirect style, which makes the story be narrated by the characters themselves and allows the reader to penetrate in their intimacy.
In 1890, he published a new novel, Su único hijo. Even though most critics consider it as a lesser novel in comparison with La Regenta, it is equal to the former in the skill with which the technical resources are used. Su único hijo was originally meant to be the introduction to a trilogy, but aside from an outline and a few fragments of the two sequels, Su único hijo was Clarín's last full-length novel.
Apart from these works, Clarín is also the author of magnificent stories and of a large number of journalistic articles. He also wrote an essay, La Literatura en 1881 (1882), in collaboration with Armando Palacio Valdés.
Leopoldo Alas remains a rather enigmatic figure in the Spanish literary world, leaving a legacy that encouraged the search for God and humanism simultaneously. This aberrant confluence has facilitated the presence of various interpretations regarding the author's writings, most noticeably of his masterpiece, La Regenta.
Alas spent his childhood living in León and Guadalajara, until he moved to Oviedo in 1863. There he studied for the Bachillerato (B.A. degree) and began his law studies. He lived in Madrid from 1871 to 1878, where he began his career as a journalist (adopting the pen-name "Clarín" in 1875) and he graduated with the thesis El Derecho y la Moralidad (Law and Morality) in 1878. He taught in Zaragoza from 1882 to 1883. In 1883 he returned to Oviedo to take up a position as professor of Roman law.
Above all, Clarín is the author of La Regenta, his masterpiece and one of the best novels of the 19th century. It is a long work, similar to Flaubert's Madame Bovary, one of its influences. Other influences included Naturalism and Krausism, a philosophical current which promoted the cultural and ethical regeneration of Spain.
La Regenta is special for its great wealth of characters and secondary stories, while the main character's description is left slightly unfocused and vague. On the other hand, the downfall of the provincial lady has a place amidst two very diverse suitors: the most handsome man in the city and the cathedral's priest. The depiction of this priest is a key part of the book.
For the description of the provincial atmosphere and the city's collective life, Clarín used techniques such as the internal monologue or the free indirect style, which makes the story be narrated by the characters themselves and allows the reader to penetrate in their intimacy.
In 1890, he published a new novel, Su único hijo. Even though most critics consider it as a lesser novel in comparison with La Regenta, it is equal to the former in the skill with which the technical resources are used. Su único hijo was originally meant to be the introduction to a trilogy, but aside from an outline and a few fragments of the two sequels, Su único hijo was Clarín's last full-length novel.
Apart from these works, Clarín is also the author of magnificent stories and of a large number of journalistic articles. He also wrote an essay, La Literatura en 1881 (1882), in collaboration with Armando Palacio Valdés.
Leopoldo Alas remains a rather enigmatic figure in the Spanish literary world, leaving a legacy that encouraged the search for God and humanism simultaneously. This aberrant confluence has facilitated the presence of various interpretations regarding the author's writings, most noticeably of his masterpiece, La Regenta.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 24, 2023
Leopoldo Alas (1852-1901) - Spanish novelist, critic and short story writer, one of the most widely read and beloved authors during his own lifetime
Has anybody heard of the Spanish novelist Leopoldo Alas or his two most famous novels, The Regent’s Wife and His Only Son? I suspect not, or very few readers, even avid readers. Thank you New York Review Books (NYRB) for making this forgotten classic available along with Margaret Jull Costa’s informative Introduction providing context for Leopoldo Alas’ life and writing. Initially I planned reading His Only Son over the course of a week but once I finished the opening chapters I was hooked – as if listening to rousing flamenco guitar music with castanets, the story and its characters click with such color and excitement, I couldn’t put the book down. To share a taste of the novel’s spicy Spanish flair, I've listed a number of highlights below. Olé!
Tyrannical Wife and Nincompoop Husband
The story revolves around wife Emma Valcárcel, sole daughter of her now deceased father, a rich prosperous lawyer and her husband Bonifacio Reyes, a dirt poor, incompetent clerk. I mention Emma first since she has inherited the entire Valcárcel family fortune and rules over her household as the one squarely in charge; Bonifacio, labelled a useless nobody by both Emma and the entire Valcárcel clan, plays his flute and is relegated to the status of mere window dressing for his rich wife. And following her tragic miscarriage, marital tensions are exacerbated tenfold, Emma transforms into a cruel, fire-breathing dragon and poor Bonifacio drops to the status of Emma’s humble servant and, even more humiliating, her personal whipping boy. Not exactly a happy, harmonious couple.
The Power of Family
The spirit of the entire Valcárcel family, both living and dead, pervades the house like a fine golden mist. Shortly after their marriage, beholding a restored portrait of one of her long lost ancestors, founder of the Valcárcel family, Don Antonio Diego Valcárcel y Merás, Emma secretly falls hopelessly in love with this illustrious warrior and eminent gentleman who symbolizes for her a desire to live on a level above ordinary people, a desire noted by the narrator as “the pedantic vanity of a woman lead astray by reading fanciful novels.” Oh, my, those romantic novels filling the heads of men and women with such nonsense! Meanwhile her Uncle Don Juan Nepomuceno manages the family finances and Cousin Sebastián deals with various members of the Valcárcel clan- uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces – both men taking up residence in Emma’s grand mansion. And where does all this leave lowly Bonifacio? Ah, the poor flute player finally evokes the power of his own Reyes family tree but only when triggered by a dramatic event toward the end of the novel – the birth of his only son. Incidentally, if one wonders about the roots of the glorious multigenerational storytelling tradition of Latin American literature with such giants as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, one Spanish author we can look to is Leopoldo Alas.
Romantic Hearts Encountering the Cold, Cruel World
In her Introduction Margaret Jull Costa alludes to the clash between romanticism and realism as an abiding theme. I found this to be one of the most charming aspects of the novel. The hard edges of physical existence are very hard indeed, but Alas’ men and women harbor in their hearts the dreams of a romantic. Bonifacio not only dedicates himself heart and soul to his great love – music, but also is a hopelessly sentimental dreamer, continually comparing his actions against the highly noble and overwhelmingly passionate actions and thoughts of heroes he has read about in novels. Emma wonders what it would be like to be inspired by a great passion; a young German woman is a “bacchante in thought” having read wildly romantic books that opened her up to images of literary lust and flexible morals.
The Opera Company
When an opera company comes to town, headed by Mochi, the manager, Serafina, the beautiful soprano and Minghetti, a dashingly handsome baritone, the unfolding drama within the Valcárcel household is ratcheted up several notches. It all starts with Bonifacio paying visits the company’s rehearsals and then starting an affair with Serafina. What?! How in the world can a faceless nincompoop like Bonifacio ever become involved with a gorgeous star like Serafina? And how will his involvement eventually lead to Emma likewise becoming entangled with members of the company, music and the arts? I wouldn’t want to spoil a reader’s discoveries but I will say Bonifacio undergoes a series of transformations, some welcome, some not so welcome, ultimately reaching a point where he can publicly proclaim the truth of his heart. Quite a feat considering what he must overcome.
19th century opera singer
Inner Thoughts
Leopoldo Alas generously incorporates the new literary innovation of interior monologue to share what his characters are thinking. Here’s a snatch of Bonifacio’s silent reflections as he listens to the voice of Serafina during a concert. This quote also underscores the author’s smooth, accessible style; a pleasure to read: “The peace of the soul also has its poetry. If only I had that peace, ah, yes, if only. For such peace was like that song: sweet, calm, serious, and strong in its own way, but also measured and gentle, a friend to the contended conscience, in love with love but safely within the orderly limits of life; just as the seasons follow, unprotesting, one on the other, the way night follows day, the way everything in the world obeys that law, without ever losing its charm or vigor; to love and love always, while God invisible smiles down on us from above the canopy of the heavens, from among the shifting clouds and twinkling stars.”
Sting of Satire
From the time of its first publication in 1890, His Only Son has been frequently referred to as a comic novel. And for good reason. It certainly is loaded with ample helpings of well-honed satire which makes for lively reading. Be prepared to laugh on nearly every page. Here’s a description of a German engineer who has moved to a mountain village on the outskirts of town: “Körner wanted to excel among those rude mountain folk, and since they remained unimpressed by his skills as a dilettante in various arts and as a reader of sentimental novels, he had to resort to other qualities more appreciated in that land, such as, for example, the strength and capacity of his stomach.” Another description, this time when Bonifacio reflects on being put in the position of Emma’s nurse: “He was constantly having to anoint and rub the skinny, fragile, complaining, exhausted body of his better or, as he privately called her, worse half. For unlike his wife’s medicines, Bonifacio’s unburdenings were for “internal use” only.”
Novella as Bonus
This New York Review Books (NYRB) edition also includes Doña Berra, a novella about a lady and her aristocratic family caught in the social upheaval and conflicting interests of old money versus new money, rich versus poor. Read in concert with His Only Son, a great introduction to Leopoldo Alas, an author deserving a wider English audience. Highly recommended.
"In short, then, Alas conceived of the novel as a vital and meaningful expression of the manners and problems of contemporary life; at the same time, he saw it as a work of art, the esthetic qualities of which transcended the historical element to give it a universality and lasting value in the realm of literary creation." -- Quote from scholar Albert Brent's book, Leopoldo Alas and La Regenta: A Study in Nineteenth Century Spanish Prose Fiction
January 21, 2019
Emma is married, but has taken a lover. Sound familiar? The esteemed translator of this novel says in an Introduction that it’s a kind of homage. But this Emma is not like that Emma. This Emma is a tyrant and keeps her husband in a resigned domestic captivity. That would be Bonifacio, and it’s his story really.
The pair marry, through Emma’s contrivance, but she soon tires of him. She turns captious, then abusive. He takes it, mostly because like seemingly all 19th century characters he is incapable of actual work. Emma has inherited a fortune and they both find ways to dissipate it, at least what isn’t being embezzled by an uncle cum administrator.
An opera show comes to town and soon adultery becomes everyone’s favorite sport. A male child comes bawling into existence, with Bonifacio beaming and a baritone looking sheepish. Whose child is this?
Bonifacio, meanwhile, has an existential moment and decides to stand up for himself, expose wrongs, bring everlasting peace. Readers would be wise to hold their breath.
The pair marry, through Emma’s contrivance, but she soon tires of him. She turns captious, then abusive. He takes it, mostly because like seemingly all 19th century characters he is incapable of actual work. Emma has inherited a fortune and they both find ways to dissipate it, at least what isn’t being embezzled by an uncle cum administrator.
An opera show comes to town and soon adultery becomes everyone’s favorite sport. A male child comes bawling into existence, with Bonifacio beaming and a baritone looking sheepish. Whose child is this?
Bonifacio, meanwhile, has an existential moment and decides to stand up for himself, expose wrongs, bring everlasting peace. Readers would be wise to hold their breath.
June 25, 2019
"Whenever he read adventure stories describing journeys to distant places, the terrible hardships endured by shipwreck victims, missionaries, explorers and so on, what he pitied most was the probable absence of any slippers."
One of NYRB's most superlative and wisest choices of publications, this long-forgotten outstanding novel, excruciating in its neglect. I can't be more hyperbolic than that. All I can say is go read this wonderful, wonderful novel, this disturbing and haunting and laugh-out-loud collision of all that is best in Spanish literature with that Dostoevskyian spirit of digging one's claws down between skin and skull and flexing and devouring whatever wells up. Read it now!
The hero here is the pleasant if insipid Bonifacio who endures having to give his wife Emma her massages and unguents. All he wants in his own simple-minded way is the titular son but Emma miscarried, is carrying on with an operatic wanderer while Bonifacio also carries on with another operatic wanderer and every carries on with everyone else to their joy and eventual doom while smearing themselves with unguents and worrying about slippers.
Truly one of the greats!
One of NYRB's most superlative and wisest choices of publications, this long-forgotten outstanding novel, excruciating in its neglect. I can't be more hyperbolic than that. All I can say is go read this wonderful, wonderful novel, this disturbing and haunting and laugh-out-loud collision of all that is best in Spanish literature with that Dostoevskyian spirit of digging one's claws down between skin and skull and flexing and devouring whatever wells up. Read it now!
The hero here is the pleasant if insipid Bonifacio who endures having to give his wife Emma her massages and unguents. All he wants in his own simple-minded way is the titular son but Emma miscarried, is carrying on with an operatic wanderer while Bonifacio also carries on with another operatic wanderer and every carries on with everyone else to their joy and eventual doom while smearing themselves with unguents and worrying about slippers.
Truly one of the greats!
August 25, 2017
Leopoldo Alas creates in this novel an unforgettable character: Benefacio Reyes. The word that comes to mind is "feckless." Reyes particular fecklessness derives from a dreamy, talentless attachment to art and a complete inability to engage realities other than those that reinforce his romantic and sensual inclinations. And he is married to a monster, another unforgettable character named, yes, "Emma," who is selfish, a hypochondriac, and obsessed that no one is sufficiently devoted to her to accompany her on her final journey into the frightening realm of death! The characters are so extreme that the fundamentally tragic story becomes a humorous farce that will leave the reader shaking his head and suppressing a smile. Oh well, Benefacio's brand of foolishness sometimes resonates painfully with those of us who read constantly and occasionally find ourselves dreamily lost in literature while dinner burns in the next room. Yes, art can push reality aside, as Don Quioxte and Benefacio Reyes remind us to our own chagrin. A great read--let dinner burn.
October 29, 2016
I received an ARC from the publisher via Edelweiss.
Bonifacio Reyes has spent his whole life carrying out the commands that others have bestowed on him. When he is a young man he is coaxed into eloping with Emma Valcárcel , the spoiled only child of Don Diego Valcárcel, a prominent lawyer in what Alas describes as a “third-rate provincial capital.” When the couple’s plans are thwarted and they are captured , Emma is confined to a convent and Bonifacio is banished to Mexico where he will live a sad and lonely existence for the rest of his life. Or so he thought.
When Emma’s father dies she is finally released from the convent and as her father’s sole heir, she lives a comfortable and pampered life. Despite the time that has passed, Emma continues to pine away for her beloved Bonifacio but in order to avoid a town scandal, she wants a different husband first before she marries Bonifacio. Emma manages to capture a sickly husband who doesn’t last very long, and once she is done playing the role of mournful widow, she has her family track Bonifacio down in Mexico where he is working for a newspaper. Bonifacio is easily lured back to Spain where, within three months, he becomes the kept husband of Emma.
Alas slowly unravels Emma’s dark side throughout the novel. Emma declares very early on that the honeymoon is over but she keeps her handsome Bonifacio around her, dressed in the finest clothes, to show him off to the rest of the provincial town whenever it is convenient. Bonifacio spends most of the day playing a flute which he finds among his deceased father-in-law’s old papers. The couple appears to settle into a comfortable, yet affectionless, existence together:
Emma never asked him about his interests nor about the time they filled, which was most of the day. She demanded only that he be smartly dressed when they went out walking or visiting. “Her” Bonifacio was merely an adornment, entirely hollow and empty inside, but useful as a way of provoking the envy of many of the town’s society ladies. She showed off her husband, for whom she bought fine clothes, which he wore well, and reserved the right to present him as a good, simple soul.
The turning point that really sours their marriage is a miscarriage that Emma suffers which affects her health and prematurely ages her. After this distressful brush with death, Emma becomes an unbearable tyrant and unleashes all of her frustrations and abuses on Bonifacio. Alas’ story reads like a tragicomedy in which neither partner in the marriage is happy but neither party can be without the other. Bonifacio is on call in the evenings so that he can rub unguents and lotions on his wife’s sickly body and while he does these and other demeaning tasks for her she hurls abuses and insults at him. The most awful part of this for Bonifacio is not the name-calling or even the completion of these tasks, but the sheer noise that Emma raises when Bonifacio is carrying out his duties. Bonifacio craves, more than anything in life, to have peace and quiet in his house. Whenever Emma calls his name, the poor man shutters:
Telling Bonifacio off became her one consolation; she could not do without his attentions nor, equally, without rewarding him with shrill, rough words. What doubt could there be that her Bonifacio was born to put up with and to care for her.
Bonifacio, who prides himself on his appreciation for music and the arts, finds a second home at the local theater where a troupe of second rate opera singers have temporarily set up shop. Bonifacio finds the peace and quiet he so craves among the opera singers who view him, at first, as a cash cow and as a sucker that will pay for their expensive dinners. Bonifacio gets into a couple of touch spots trying to get money out of his wife’s uncle, who serves as the family accountant. Bonifacio quickly realizes that the best way to get into the heart and the bed of Serafina is to give her partner Mochi money whenever he asks. Bonifacio engages in a passionate and sensual love affair with Serafina and he carefully keeps his musician friends away from his home and his wife.
At this point in the story Alas ramps up the comedy as Bonifacio and Emma engage in an elaborate game of cat and mouse. Emma has gradually been recovering her health and is only pretending to be an invalid. One night when Bonifacio comes home from the theater smelling of rice powder, Emma suspects that he is having an affair. But instead of screaming and yelling at her husband, she seduces him and for the first time in years they start having sex again. The sex, though, becomes, like Emma’s character, a bit crazy and depraved. Emma admits that she has been hatching a maniacal plan to bring down both her adulterous husband and her accountant uncle who she believes is stealing from her:.
The first part of her plan is carried out when Emma insists on going to the theater and meeting Bonifacio’s music friends with whom he has been spending so much time. But while at the theater, Emma is herself smitten with one of the opera singers, a baritone named Minghetti. Emma and Minghetti flirt shamelessly with one another and arrange to see each other on a regular basis when Minghetti offers piano lessons to Emma. This is where the story reaches its pinnacle of farce as Emma and her lover carry on right under Bonifacio’s nose.
It is also at this point that Emma finds out that she is pregnant. Bonifacio becomes maudlin and sentimental over the fact that he will now have a son and promises to changes his ways. He swears he will take more financial responsibility for his family and he gives up Serafina as his lover. Bonifacio’s final act of absurdity is his refusal to believe that anyone besides himself is the father of Emma’s baby. The novel concludes with this one statement that Alas puts in the mouth of his unheroic hero which deftly mixes the tragic and the comic: “Bonifacio Reyes believes absolutely that Antonio Reyes y Valcarcel is his son. His only son, you understand, his only son!”
Bonifacio Reyes has spent his whole life carrying out the commands that others have bestowed on him. When he is a young man he is coaxed into eloping with Emma Valcárcel , the spoiled only child of Don Diego Valcárcel, a prominent lawyer in what Alas describes as a “third-rate provincial capital.” When the couple’s plans are thwarted and they are captured , Emma is confined to a convent and Bonifacio is banished to Mexico where he will live a sad and lonely existence for the rest of his life. Or so he thought.
When Emma’s father dies she is finally released from the convent and as her father’s sole heir, she lives a comfortable and pampered life. Despite the time that has passed, Emma continues to pine away for her beloved Bonifacio but in order to avoid a town scandal, she wants a different husband first before she marries Bonifacio. Emma manages to capture a sickly husband who doesn’t last very long, and once she is done playing the role of mournful widow, she has her family track Bonifacio down in Mexico where he is working for a newspaper. Bonifacio is easily lured back to Spain where, within three months, he becomes the kept husband of Emma.
Alas slowly unravels Emma’s dark side throughout the novel. Emma declares very early on that the honeymoon is over but she keeps her handsome Bonifacio around her, dressed in the finest clothes, to show him off to the rest of the provincial town whenever it is convenient. Bonifacio spends most of the day playing a flute which he finds among his deceased father-in-law’s old papers. The couple appears to settle into a comfortable, yet affectionless, existence together:
Emma never asked him about his interests nor about the time they filled, which was most of the day. She demanded only that he be smartly dressed when they went out walking or visiting. “Her” Bonifacio was merely an adornment, entirely hollow and empty inside, but useful as a way of provoking the envy of many of the town’s society ladies. She showed off her husband, for whom she bought fine clothes, which he wore well, and reserved the right to present him as a good, simple soul.
The turning point that really sours their marriage is a miscarriage that Emma suffers which affects her health and prematurely ages her. After this distressful brush with death, Emma becomes an unbearable tyrant and unleashes all of her frustrations and abuses on Bonifacio. Alas’ story reads like a tragicomedy in which neither partner in the marriage is happy but neither party can be without the other. Bonifacio is on call in the evenings so that he can rub unguents and lotions on his wife’s sickly body and while he does these and other demeaning tasks for her she hurls abuses and insults at him. The most awful part of this for Bonifacio is not the name-calling or even the completion of these tasks, but the sheer noise that Emma raises when Bonifacio is carrying out his duties. Bonifacio craves, more than anything in life, to have peace and quiet in his house. Whenever Emma calls his name, the poor man shutters:
Telling Bonifacio off became her one consolation; she could not do without his attentions nor, equally, without rewarding him with shrill, rough words. What doubt could there be that her Bonifacio was born to put up with and to care for her.
Bonifacio, who prides himself on his appreciation for music and the arts, finds a second home at the local theater where a troupe of second rate opera singers have temporarily set up shop. Bonifacio finds the peace and quiet he so craves among the opera singers who view him, at first, as a cash cow and as a sucker that will pay for their expensive dinners. Bonifacio gets into a couple of touch spots trying to get money out of his wife’s uncle, who serves as the family accountant. Bonifacio quickly realizes that the best way to get into the heart and the bed of Serafina is to give her partner Mochi money whenever he asks. Bonifacio engages in a passionate and sensual love affair with Serafina and he carefully keeps his musician friends away from his home and his wife.
At this point in the story Alas ramps up the comedy as Bonifacio and Emma engage in an elaborate game of cat and mouse. Emma has gradually been recovering her health and is only pretending to be an invalid. One night when Bonifacio comes home from the theater smelling of rice powder, Emma suspects that he is having an affair. But instead of screaming and yelling at her husband, she seduces him and for the first time in years they start having sex again. The sex, though, becomes, like Emma’s character, a bit crazy and depraved. Emma admits that she has been hatching a maniacal plan to bring down both her adulterous husband and her accountant uncle who she believes is stealing from her:.
The first part of her plan is carried out when Emma insists on going to the theater and meeting Bonifacio’s music friends with whom he has been spending so much time. But while at the theater, Emma is herself smitten with one of the opera singers, a baritone named Minghetti. Emma and Minghetti flirt shamelessly with one another and arrange to see each other on a regular basis when Minghetti offers piano lessons to Emma. This is where the story reaches its pinnacle of farce as Emma and her lover carry on right under Bonifacio’s nose.
It is also at this point that Emma finds out that she is pregnant. Bonifacio becomes maudlin and sentimental over the fact that he will now have a son and promises to changes his ways. He swears he will take more financial responsibility for his family and he gives up Serafina as his lover. Bonifacio’s final act of absurdity is his refusal to believe that anyone besides himself is the father of Emma’s baby. The novel concludes with this one statement that Alas puts in the mouth of his unheroic hero which deftly mixes the tragic and the comic: “Bonifacio Reyes believes absolutely that Antonio Reyes y Valcarcel is his son. His only son, you understand, his only son!”
January 15, 2017
This is a well written, charming, but ultimately inconsequential novel of provincial Spain in the second half of 19th Century. I didn't perceive any depth beyond the mere story-telling. By comparison to classic literature of the period (Eliot, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Zola, Flaubert) there's no real psychology. The "hero" of the book is a buffoon, married to a wealthy heiress who only married him for his looks and then bored of him. Why the characters act as they do is never really delved into, and I finished it feeling rather unsatisfied.
A forgotten classic, not really. I think it's been forgotten because there are thousands of books as well written which also have something else to say about life.
A forgotten classic, not really. I think it's been forgotten because there are thousands of books as well written which also have something else to say about life.
November 30, 2016
I enjoyed Bonifacios and Emmas many moods and emotions.
May 28, 2017
An absolute pleasure.
May 24, 2020
Carlos Funetes mentions Alas somewhere as one of the renovators of Spanish prose in the 19th century, and this book does have a distinctive "I'm going to transplant something I've read in a different European language directly into my own"-vibe. The problem, alas, is that Alas is a haphazard plotter, and there are many points in the book where a big scene or character development falls flat because insufficient groundwork has been laid for it earlier, causing the hand of the author to have to show itself annoyingly and making the whole thing feel more like off-brand Flaubert than an authentic feat. That having been said, the last sixty pages or so is an effective-enough Calvary - one that brought to mind Nabokov's description of Don Quixote as a "cruel" book. It isn't, of course, any more than Madame Bovary is cruel - the parade of sufferings in both cases leading to a deepening of sympathy and understanding that feels weirdly proportionate in the end (by which I mean, essentially, "us-sized"). Bonifacio's misfortunes, on the other hand, come across as piled-on precisely because we sense from the beginning that even in defeat he is not going to be equal to them (unlike Emma or the Don). Therefore the book does read as cruel, meaning sentimental, which quality Joyce (or Joyce quoting Augustine) helpfully defines as something that "Seeks to do without incurring the immense debtorship of a thing done."
October 29, 2021
I have no problem with Alas's use of Flaubertian formulas, especially since he knows he's using them. The novel starts well, and is engaging in exactly the way that Flaubert is engaging: crafted, perfectly turned, but also offering the pleasures of 19th century realism. Unfortunately, the last third or so is a bit of a misfire, and the conclusion entirely unearned. I guess that's what separates the Gustaves from the Leopoldos (caveat: I haven't read La Regenta).
The short work that follows did nothing for me, but Margaret Jull Costa says it's good; that's high enough authority for me to say I must be wrong, but I'm not entirely sure why. Speaking of Costa, translators should be eligible for the Nobel Prize. Give it to her.
The short work that follows did nothing for me, but Margaret Jull Costa says it's good; that's high enough authority for me to say I must be wrong, but I'm not entirely sure why. Speaking of Costa, translators should be eligible for the Nobel Prize. Give it to her.
March 1, 2025
Still reading about neurotic 19th century men and Alas' Bonifacio is a gem. His relationships and desires for life are joyfully amusing when pitted against his in-laws who are obsessed with power and money.
As a bonus, this includes the short story Dona Berta, which like His Only Son, masterfully brings to life the characters from the pages.
Special shout out to Margaret Jull Costa who has perfectly translated all of the recent fiction I have read and brought some great authors to life.
As a bonus, this includes the short story Dona Berta, which like His Only Son, masterfully brings to life the characters from the pages.
Special shout out to Margaret Jull Costa who has perfectly translated all of the recent fiction I have read and brought some great authors to life.
July 6, 2020
The author clearly displays his significant literary skills in both works in this volume. His prose is graceful and his presentation of characters is nuanced. Yet he seems to crash his story arcs with abrupt and inadequate endings. A rewarding but, in the end, disappointing read.
June 22, 2022
An unusually comic realist novel about two unfaithful people, one pathetic and one cruel, with romantic notions of lineage. Alas' novel doesn't have any standout faults, but I didn't really find any standout strengths either, in prose or plot.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews