Doña Perfecta

A young engineer from Madrid arrives in a small Spanish town to marry his cousin, only to find himself caught in a web of suspicion, gossip, and entrenched tradition. Doña Perfecta is Benito Pérez Galdós's novel of ideas, first published in 1876, which dramatizes the clash between liberal modernity and provincial conservatism in nineteenth-century Spain. At its center is the formidable Doña Perfecta, a woman whose piety and social standing conceal a fierce determination to protect her world from outsiders. As the conflict between Pepe Rey and the town of Orbajosa escalates, Galdós shows how personal relationships become battlegrounds for larger historical forces. This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy classic realist fiction, political allegory, and psychologically rich character studies. It offers a vivid portrait of a community under pressure and a tragic exploration of intolerance and misunderstanding. This edition contains the complete text of the novel in Mary J. Serrano's translation with W. D. Howells's introduction, a new introduction for first-time readers, a character guide, a summary of the story, a thematic overview, a glossary of period and regional terms, and a set of discussion questions for book clubs and students.