Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) is considered the greatest Spanish writer after Cervantes. In a career that spanned more than forty years, Galdós wrote nearly eighty novels and some twenty plays. Tristana, also available as an NYRB Classic, and other books of his were adapted for the screen by the great surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel.
Margaret Jull Costa is a translator of Spanish and Portugeuse literature and poetry and has won many prizes, including the PEN Translation Prize. She has translated works by novelists such as Eça de Queiróz, José Saramago, Javier Marías, and Fernando Pessoa, as well as poets such as Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Ana Luísa Amaral. She lives in the United Kingdom.
