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  —133→  

ArribaAbajoGaldós, journalist

Hensley C. Woodbridge


Before discussing Los artículos políticos en la «Revista de España», 1871-1872, edición de Brian J. Dendle y Joseph Schraibman. Introducción de Brian J. Dendle, Lexington, Ky., Dendle y Schraibman, 1982, xii, 150 pp. and Galdós, periodista, prólogo de Luis María Ansón, Madrid, Banco de Crédito Industrial, 1981, 437 pp., it might be wise to list a few other important collections of Galdós' journalism published during the last thirty-five years. William H. Shoemaker has published Crónica de la Quincena by Benito Pérez Galdós, Princeton, N. J., Princeton University Press, 1948, vii, 140 pp. which reproduces nine crónicas from Ilustración de Madrid (Jan.-May 1872), Los artículos de Galdós en «La Nación», 1865-1866, 1868, Madrid, Ínsula, 1972, 557 pp. Las cartas desconocidas de Galdós en «La Prensa» de Buenos Aires, Madrid, Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, 1973, 541 pp. Leo J. Hoar, Jr., has reproduced the texts of forty articles in his Benito Pérez Galdós y La Revista del movimiento intelectual de Europa, Madrid, 1865-1867, Madrid, Ínsula, 1968, 300 pp. José Schraibman, «Galdós, colaborador de El Omnibus», Anuario de estudios atlánticos, no. 9:289-324 (1963) reproduces texts from this Las Palmas journal. Single short stories, articles and other works of Galdós first published in newspapers and periodicals are gradually being reprinted with commentary in a variety of scholarly journals. The works by Shoemaker, Schraibman and Hoar listed above contain valuable introductory remarks. It would appear that to date Galdós' journalism has not received the attention that it deserves.

The twentieth-century student of Galdós will not be able to gain an overall view of the man and his works until this individual can have access to what Galdós has published in newspapers and periodicals. The standard six-volume edition of his Obras completas are far from complete. The search through files of newspapers and magazines published in Spain during Galdós' writing career is an extremely tedious and time-consuming one. The newsprint of the time has begun to fade and files of many of the newspapers and journals in which he published do not exist in most libraries. The publication of this material should become an essential project for enterprising galdosianos; a delay of even a few years might be fatal to a complete understanding of this aspect of Galdós' oeuvre.

Up to 1981 the fullest discussion of Galdós and the Revista de España was that of Peter B. Goldman, «Galdós and the politics of reconciliation», AG, 4 (1969), 74-87. Dendle's introduction provides data on this journal, Galdós' relationship with Albareda, its editor, as well as on some of the topics that Galdós dealt with in these articles. The editors note that they have attempted to reproduce the text of the articles as accurately as possible keeping   —134→   the accentuation, spelling, punctuation of the original. They have corrected only obvious typographical errors.

Pages 1-154 reproduce the texts of fourteen articles that were published under the general heading «Revista política interior». Pp. 155-158 are an «Índice onomástico y de materias». This index should be extremely useful to any who would like to go immediately to the text to discover what these articles contain concerning Spanish politicians of the period and the subjects covered in them.

Scholars should appreciate having these fourteen articles brought together with its valuable introduction which explains their importance.

Galdós, periodista is both a fascinating and a disappointing volume. It is beautifully bound and the facsimile reproduction of the material is done with care. The deterioration of some of the newspapers has meant a poor reproduction in spots and in other places a good magnifying glass might be of assistance.

Among the more disappointing aspects of the volume is the two-page prologue by Luis María Ansón. It is much too short to be useful and no comments are made in it to indicate how the journals, newspapers, or selections reproduced were chosen. The book jacket fails to indicate what additional volumes might be planned so that today's student of Galdós and his works might have brought together Galdós' complete contributions to the newspapers and journals of his times both in Spain, Spanish America and Europe.

Material is reproduced from La Nación, pp. 9-94, Revista del movimiento intelectual de Europa, pp. 95-118, Electra, p. 119, Alma española, p. 121, La Guirnalda, pp. 122-137, Vida nueva, p. 138, España nueva, p. 139, La República de las letras, pp. 140-143, Ideas y figuras, p. 145, La ilustración de Madrid, pp. 146-161 and Revista de España, pp. 163-434.

Among the items republished in Galdós, periodista but which have not been published in his Obras completas nor in the other collections mentioned in the first paragraph are: «Carta de Galdós», p. 119 from Electra, «Al pueblo español», p. 139 from España nueva, «A mis amigos argentinos», p. 145 from Ideas y figuras, «Organización actual del imperio austriaco», pp. 190-195 from Revista de España.

Without proper editorial guidance, it is difficult to understand why the various items are not provided with their date, volume number and pagination. Thus, for bibliographical purposes one cannot refer to the original, but will have to cite the pagination as found in Galdós, periodista.

It shows poor editorial judgment to reproduce part of an article but not its continuation. Pp. 196-205 are the first article of «Don Ramón de la Cruz y su época». This article ends with (Se continuará), but Galdós, periodista does not provide the text of the second article. The scholar who wishes to use the text of both articles must either seek out the original in the Revista de España or depend on the text as found in Obras completas, 6:1453-1467. It has been my belief for some time that the text of the Obras completas is too faulty to be relied upon and that scholars should make every effort to avoid using this set and should wherever critical editions of Galdós' works exist use them instead. The first part of this article is a good example of what I mean. Federico Carlos Sainz de Robles has omitted reprinting the   —135→   last paragraph of this article or approximately 170 words. It is true that he reprints the second article with this title, while Galdós, periodista does not.

It is unfortunate that usually Sainz de Robles does not indicate the source of the text he reproduces. It grows more and more obvious why critical editions of Galdós' works are a necessity. I will provide one more example to show the apparent superiority of the Galdós, periodista text over that of the Obras completas. The first part of the first sentence of «Las generaciones artísticas en la ciudad de Toledo» in the Obras completas, 6:1569 reads as follows: «Cuando se llega por el ferrocarril a la que, por una tradición en cierto modo irrisoria, se llama todavía ciudad imperial, no cree el viajero encontrarse a las puertas de la antigua metrópoli española...» while in Galdós, periodista, p. 163 it reads: «Cuando se llega en ferro-carril á la que, por una tradición en cierto modo irrisoria, se llama todavía ciudad imperial, no cree el viajero encontrarse á las puertas de la antigua metrópoli española...» In certain spots Sainz de Robles does not italicize words italicized by Galdós (as in the above example) and elsewhere may italicize where Galdós does not. The distinction between llegar por and llegar en may not be a great one. It would be my suggestion that unless Galdós himself collected his journalism into book form (here I use the term journalism to include his contributions to newspapers and periodicals), the scholar should follow the text of Galdós, periodista. This comment, of course, would not apply to works such as Doña Perfecta which later appeared in book form and which Galdós had the chance to proofread. My desire is that today's scholar should have Galdós' text in as an unadulterated and untampered with form as possible.

Galdós, periodista does not reproduce all fourteen articles published under the general title «Revista política interior» in the Revista de España. For all of them Dendle-Schraibman must be used.

It is a pity that Galdós, periodista did not limit itself to several newspapers and periodicals and then reproduce everything in them by Galdós. It is true that it reproduces several items apparently not previously reprinted and for this we can all be grateful.

It would not be my intention to discourage the Banco de Crédito Industrial from issuing other volumes of Galdós' journalism. I would hope that future volumes, if any, would provide proper bibliographical data, would not be selective in any way, and would continue to search out the best preserved surviving copies from which to reproduce its photocopies. To do so would greatly increase our debt to this institution.

There is no reason not to be pleased with the appearance of both the paperback Dendle-Schraibman volume with its helpful introduction and index and the finely bound Galdós, periodista which will allow the scholar to have ready access to a variety of material that Galdós originally published in newspapers and periodicals.

Southern Illinois University-Carbondale





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