Despite the fact that Darwinian theory was perhaps the big idea of the nineteenth century, most critics in the past have assumed that Benito Perez Galdos would have remained unaffected by this scientific and philosophical revolution. This work contends otherwise, charting the influence of evolutionary theories on Galdos throughout his literary career. From his adaptation of the early nineteenth-century costumbristas' depiction of social species into a more sophisticated portrayal of Madrid society to his treatment of shifting social forces at a time of major socio-economic change, Galdos's outlook is shown to be deeply enmeshed in the Darwinian debate. Attention is paid not only to the hypotheses of Darwin himself, but also for instance to Ernst Haeckel's evolutionary thought, to Herbert Spencer's social Darwinism, and to the radical histology of Santiago Ramon y Cajal.
Galdos and Darwin discusses how Spain's greatest novelist since Cervantes imaginatively reworked these epoch-making theories and investigates the impact of science on culture as the Spanish nation approached the twentieth century.
T. E. BELL completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Nicholas Round at Sheffield University.
- ISBN10 1282080350
- ISBN13 9781282080355
- Publish Date 1 January 2006
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 17 February 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Boydell & Brewer
- Format eBook
- Pages 189
- Language English