Doña Perfecta

Doña Perfecta, by Benito Pérez
Galdós

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Title: Doña Perfecta
Author: Benito Pérez Galdós
Release Date: April 28, 2005 [EBook #15725]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PERFECTA ***

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DOÑA PERFECTA
POR BENITO PÉREZ GALDÓS

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY A. R. MARSH
VOCABULARY BY STEVEN T. BYINGTON
=The Athenaeum Press= GINN AND
COMPANY--PROPRIETORS--BOSTON--U.S.A.

PREFACE
This edition of one of the best known of modern Spanish novels has
been prepared for the use of college classes in Spanish that have
already mastered the elements of Spanish grammar, but have not yet
had much practice in reading. The editor has found by actual
experience that it is safe to undertake the story in three or four months
from the time when the study of the language is begun, that is, in the
second half of the first year's work in the subject. As the book is not a
long one, it should be possible to read it entire before the close of the
year. Indeed, with an earnest class, even less time than this will be
found to suffice.
The novel is printed exactly (save correction of printer's errors) as it
appears in the eighth Spanish edition (Madrid, 1896). At the same time,
great pains have been taken to make the orthography and accentuation
conform in all respects to the standard of the last edition of the Spanish
Academy's Dictionary. The Notes are considerably fuller than is
customary in college editions of modern works in foreign languages.
This has been made necessary in part by the dreadful insufficiency of
the existing Spanish-English dictionaries, and in part by the editor's
desire to afford the student some aid in dealing with grammatical
peculiarities not fully discussed in the more available text-books. As a
further help to grammatical study, numerous references have been
inserted to Ramsey's Text-Book of Modern Spanish (New York, 1894)
and to Knapp's Grammar of the Modern Spanish Language (Boston,
1891).

A.R.M.
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS March, 1897

In the new impression of this book the accentuation has been
conformed to the new (fourteenth) edition of the Academy's Dictionary,
a small number of misprints have been corrected, and a vocabulary has
been added.
As is stated in the above preface, a considerable part of the notes in the
first impression were intended as a partial substitute for a vocabulary.
Obviously, the insertion of the vocabulary made such notes mainly
superfluous; hence in the present edition such notes as seemed to be
mere duplication of the vocabulary are omitted. At the same time it was
inevitable that in the work of compiling the vocabulary some additional
occasions for making notes were found, and new light was obtained on
some places where notes already stood. The result is that the notes in
the present impression, though shorter than before, contain (apart from
vocabulary matter) more information, and it is hoped that they will at
least maintain the reputation which this edition of Doña Perfecta has
gained.
Besides the references to the grammars of Ramsey and Knapp,
references to Coester's Spanish Grammar (Boston, 1912) are now
given.

INTRODUCTION
The two literary genres in which Spaniards have most excelled are the
drama and the novel. Indeed, outside of these two forms, it may be said
that no Spaniard has won a literary success of the first order. Thus, in
the past six centuries there have been many Spanish poets of real worth;
and yet in the list of the world's supreme poets no Spanish name
appears. Among the world's great philosophers Spain has no
representative, though she has had thinkers of genuine power. She has

had no moralist, or historian, or political writer, or scientist of the
highest rank. Even religion, which at first sight would seem to be the
predominant interest of Spain, has not there inspired any work of
universal and permanent appeal to the race. The other nations of the
civilized world have at no time derived from Spain a powerful literary
impulse in any of these directions. Palestine and Greece and Rome and
Italy and France and Germany and England have all had something
lastingly valuable to say upon one or more of these matters; but no one
would think of turning to Spanish books for the best that has been
thought and said upon any of them.
With the drama