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Review of "La Fontana de Oro"
La Fontana de Oro, a novel written by Benito Pérez Galdós, narrates the experiences of Lázaro, a young liberal man, that travels to Madrid while the liberal triennium is taking place in Spain. He moves to his uncle’s house. His name is Elías, alias “Coletilla”, a frenetic defender of the absolute monarchy. He lives in the house with Clara. She is Elías’s ward, and he usually treats her badly. Lázaro is in love with Clara. As the novel continues another suitor for Clara will appear, Claudio Bozmediano.
Although the principal plot is the relationship between Lázaro and Clara, we can see that Galdós wants us to focus our attention on the historical and political context in Spain in 1820. The main incident of this year (1820) was that the Constitution of Cádiz, which had been created in 1812, was accepted by the King Fernando 7th.This caused the end of the absolute monarchy in Spain. The novel is based on real facts, but not completely. The love story is not real, but the historical events are.
This novel is amazing because the lack of maturity of Benito Pérez Galdós (as it is his first novel) is hardly perceptible, being this novel considered one of the first perfect novels in history. Another characteristic, in my opinion, that makes this work remarkable is the skill that Galdós shows at developing the personality of the characters, especially the secondary ones; an example can be the women of Porreño. The description of their lives and habits is full of details and is treated with impressive realism. As a result, the descriptions of characters made by Galdós remain in our memory for a long time. But, in my opinion, the most impressive characteristic is the ability to put himself in the shoes of someone with a different ideology from his. We can see this in the ideological confrontation between Lazaro, who is a liberal and Elias, alias Coletilla, who is a conservative. This might well be a metaphor of what was happening in Spain: Elías is the one that disrupts the relationship between Lázaro and Clara and in the end he gives in, as the monarchy does and he allows the relationship to continue. It could be said that at the end, the liberal ideology “wins” and beats the conservative. This novel allows us to realize that Galdós has a progressive attitude, and to know his opinion (liberal ideology) of the events that were taking place in Spain from 1820 to 1823.
Signed by Manuel de Jesús Galván.
Crítica escrita por Verónica García Tribaldos, alumna de 4ºA.