a y
Jacinta,' 1886; 'Miau,' 1888; 'La Incognita' (The Unknown: 1889);
'Realidad' (Reality: 1890); 'Angel Guerra,' 1891; 'Torquemada en la
Cruz' (Torquemada on the Cross: 1894); 'Torquemada en el Purgatorio'
(Torquemada in Purgatory: 1894); 'Torquemada y San Pedro,' 1895;
'Nazarin,' 1895; 'Halma,' 1896.

Even in his new departure, Galdos did not at once enter upon his final
manner. 'Dona Perfecta,' 'The Family of Leon Roch,' and 'Gloria' are
quite distinctly didactic, or "novels with a purpose"; while
'Marianela' is somewhat cloyingly sentimental, a prose poem after the
manner of Ouida. In spite of all this, however, 'Dona Perfecta' has
been pronounced by many his best work. It is the one that has obtained
greatest celebrity abroad, and it is the one, all things considered,
likely to be the most satisfactory example of his work to the English
reader. 'La Desheredada' marks the transition to his final period, and
he has put it upon record that with this book the real difficulties of
his vocation began. It is a poignantly affecting story of a poor girl
who was brought up, by a parent half knave and half insane, to believe
that she was not his daughter but that of a noble house. After his
death she undertakes in all good faith to prosecute her claim, and is
thrown into prison as an impostor. Her heart is broken by the
disillusionment; she cannot adjust herself to life again without the
sweetness of that beguiling belief, and so, in the end, not having the
boldness to die, she throws herself upon the street, a social outcast.
Both in the person of Isidora and others, the book is a moving
treatise on false education. Other leading figures are her brother, a
young "hoodlum" and thief, the burden of whose career she has also to
bear upon her slender shoulders, and the pampered son of the poor
Sastres, who have denied themselves bread that he might have an
education and luxuries. He has a hundred fine schemes for getting a
living, but never a one of them includes turning his hand to a stroke
of honest labor.

'El Amigo Manso' is an extended piece of character-drawing, self-told,
in a gently humorous vein. It gives an account of a college
instructor, very benevolent, very methodical and prudent, and a trifle
conceited and patronizing, who is in love with a pretty governess. By
the time he has settled all his judicious pros and cons, the pretty
governess, who really cared nothing about him, is engaged to a suitor
of a more dash