Extract

Università della Tuscia

Abstract: The object of this work is the analysis of the translation of Dickens’ novel The Posthumous Papers Translation of the Pickwick Club, published by B. Pérez Galdós in 1867: a peculiar translation which allows us to enter into the Galdosian “literary laboratory”. In these years, in fact, Galdós wrote a critical essay about Pickwick Club and in 1870 he published his first novel, La Fontana de Oro. It is possible to study his translation activity as an apprenticeship: Galdós reads, interprets and re-writes the pages of Dickens and his translation is an interesting trait d’union between the Spanish novels of the golden age and the French and British novels of the second half of 19th century.

Keywords: Spain, 19th century, translation, novel, Benito Pérez Galdós, Charles Dickens, Pickwick Papers

El largo y matizado camino que caracteriza la carrera literaria de Benito Pérez Galdós fue un intento de abarcar las posibilidades de lo real: “lo real desde todos sus umbrales”, nos recuerda Oleza (1976: 91), incluido el visionario y el subconsciente, tanto que su producción se presenta como un enorme esfuerzo de aprehensión de la realidad y su novela como un género en movimiento, que avanza constantemente en dirección de unas preguntas que se refieren a la sociedad española, al hombre español en la sociedad, a la historia española en su época.