'The Enchanted Knight' by the Most Cervantine Pérez Galdós Rides Again

From the title to its conclusion, 'The Enchanted Knight' is the most Cervantine novel by Benito Pérez Galdós (Las Palmas, 1843-Madrid, 1920). Written in his later years, when he felt freer and less constrained, the author who came close to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature abandoned the realist style that had defined his brilliant career to embrace modernity and fantasy, albeit without neglecting social criticism. Linked to the themes of the Generation of '98 and considered a precursor to 'Luces de Bohemia' by Valle-Inclán, Nocturna Publishing now revives the most unknown novel by Pérez Galdós in a new edition.

Set in the Soria of Antonio Machado, yet with a deep critique against the decline of Castile far from any idealisation, the writer imagines a marquis of high nobility, Carlos de Tarsis, who, despite exploiting the peasants of his estates, ends up squandering his fortune on travel, gambling, and women. To escape bankruptcy, he attempts to arrange a marriage of convenience, without success. Then he suffers an enchantment that transforms him into Gil, a labourer performing the most arduous tasks in the fields. There, he discovers the reality of a world that was completely unknown to him and atones for his sins, experiencing a genuine transformation.

With Carlos de Tarsis, Pérez Galdós employs fantastical elements and techniques such as the inclusion of theatrical pieces within the text, akin to the Quixote he so admired since his youth, to delve into the satire of the powerful and the crisis in Spain, following, with his own concerns, the trend of the Generation of '98. The echoes of chivalric novels resonate in this work, which, despite its literary value, was misunderstood in its time by an audience that expected more books like 'Fortunata and Jacinta' from Pérez Galdós, rather than narrative experiments. Over time, however, scholars of the writer have highlighted the virtues of 'The Enchanted Knight' and have positioned it as one of his most interesting novels.