6 h 51 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 6 h 51 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the person who loves you most sees a beauty you cannot believe you possess?
Among the mines and green hills of northern Spain, Marianela guides Pablo Penáguilas through a world he cannot see. She is a poor orphan who believes she is too plain to be loved. He is gentle, educated, and devoted to her. From her voice and companionship, he imagines a beauty that she cannot recognize in herself.
In Benito Pérez Galdós's short novel, love meets the promise of science when eye surgeon Teodoro Golfín arrives. Pablo's father hopes his son will gain sight and a settled place in society. His cousin Florentina is kind, beautiful, and the family's hoped-for bride. For Nela, these hopes sharpen a painful question: what makes someone worthy of love?
What you’ll discover
- A bond beyond appearances Follow Nela and Pablo's companionship, where affection rests on voice, trust, and an imagined face.
- Green hills and open pits Enter a landscape where natural beauty stands beside the scars of mining.
- The promise of sight Meet a plain-speaking surgeon whose faith in knowledge unsettles a small world's familiar balance.
- Kindness across class lines Consider how poverty and comfortable expectations shape what people believe others deserve.
- Tenderness with a sharp edge Find feeling, gentle humor, and searching questions about the ways people fail to see.
Who will love it
For readers who love short, emotional nineteenth century fiction and stories about class, kindness and how we see each other.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A neglected girl guides a blind boy
- Pablo loves a beauty he cannot see
- A doctor arrives with the power to heal
- Florentina enters and Nela feels smaller
- Sight, class and the cost of truth
- A fable told with feeling and irony
Who’s who
- Marianela (the Nela)A poor orphan girl who serves as Pablo's guide and companion, and who believes she is too plain to be loved.
- Pablo PenáguilasA gentle, educated young man, blind since childhood, who loves Nela and imagines her as beautiful.
- Teodoro GolfínA skilled surgeon who treats eye disease and believes that knowledge and reason can improve lives.
- FlorentinaPablo's cousin, a kind, well-educated young woman whom Pablo's family hopes he may marry.
- Francisco PenáguilasPablo's father, a landowner who wants his son to see and to take a settled place in society.
- CelipínA boy from the village who longs for education and a life beyond poverty.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 6 h 51 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Marianela
by Benito Pérez Galdós · 1878
A blind young man loves the girl he imagines, while a surgeon's arrival puts that picture at risk.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Marianela is a short novel by the Spanish writer Benito Pérez Galdós, published in 1878. It is set among the mines and green hills of northern Spain.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A neglected girl guides a blind boy
The story opens in the countryside near the mining district of Socartes, in northern Spain. A traveler is walking through hills, ravines and open pits, and the landscape shows both beauty and the scars of digging for ore. Out of this setting comes Marianela, whom everyone simply calls the Nela. She is a small, thin orphan of about sixteen, poor and badly dressed.
Nobody has ever treated her as someone with a future. She lives among people who use her for errands and give her little warmth. She has not been taught to read, and others tell her she is plain, almost animal-like. She has absorbed these judgments and believes them completely.
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What is Marianela about?
Marianela is about a poor orphan girl called the Nela who guides a blind young man, Pablo, through the mining country of northern Spain. He loves her, believing her beautiful, and the arrival of a surgeon threatens that illusion.
Who is Marianela in the novel?
Marianela, known as the Nela, is a neglected orphan of about sixteen who has little schooling and is thought ugly by those around her. She is the daily guide and companion of the blind Pablo Penáguilas.
When was Marianela written and where is it set?
Galdós published Marianela in 1878. It is a work of fiction, not a true story, set in the mining district of Socartes and the hills of northern Spain, reflecting real tensions of industry and rural life.
The author
Benito Pérez Galdós
1843–1920 · Spanish realist novelist
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) was a Spanish novelist and playwright. He was born in Las Palmas in the Canary Islands and moved to Madrid in 1862. He wrote Marianela (1878), Fortunata and Jacinta (1886–1887), and Miau (1888), as well as the historical novel series Episodios nacionales. He died in Madrid.
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