Memorias de un cortesano de 1815, by Pérez Galdós

Abstract

constitute a vivid account¹⁸² of those eventful days, when the stubborn contest was waged between the autocratic rule of former centuries and the liberal aspirations awakened by the national struggle against Napoleon’s invading armies. That the author chose a courtier for his hero was done in order to show the intriguing and selfish narrowmindedness of this class, now on the verge of losing their prerogatives and venturing all to withstand the current that is to sweep them from their exalted place. In representing this side of the question, now settled, the story deserves our interest, though otherwise the lack of stirring events, such as give life to the numerous other volumes of the great series called Episodios Nacionales, makes it one of the least entertaining of the author’s works.