Riassunto
Riassunto di Marianela
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love short, emotional nineteenth century fiction and stories about class, kindness and how we see each other.
Che cos’è questo libro
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. It tells of a poor, unloved orphan girl and the blind young man she guides through the countryside. Galdós wrote it in the years when science, industry and old village life were pulling against one another in Spain, and you can feel all three in its pages.
The book gives you a tender story and a sharp question. What do we love when we love someone? A face, a voice, a kindness, or the picture we have made of them? Along the way you meet a doctor who believes in reason, a landowner's family with comfortable plans, and a girl who has never been told she is worth anything. Let us begin with the girl herself, and the hills where she spends her days.
In questo riassunto
- 1A neglected girl guides a blind boyFree
- 2Pablo loves a beauty he cannot see
- 3A doctor arrives with the power to heal
- 4Florentina enters and Nela feels smaller
- 5Sight, class and the cost of truth
- 6A fable told with feeling and irony
Punto chiave 1 di 6
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.
Yet she has one task that gives her a sense of purpose. She is the daily guide of Pablo Penáguilas, a young man who has been blind since childhood. Pablo is the son of Francisco Penáguilas, a landowner of some means. She leads him along the paths, describes the world to him, and keeps him company for hours.
From the first chapters, Galdós makes us feel how much she gives and how little she is given. Her wandering life has made her observant and close to nature. She talks to the birds, the flowers and the stones as if they were friends. In that open, hilly place, she is rich in something money cannot count, which is attention.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Marianela (the Nela)
- A poor orphan girl, she serves as Pablo's guide and companion and believes herself too plain to be loved.
- Pablo Penáguilas
- Blind since childhood, this gentle, educated young man loves Nela and imagines that she must be beautiful.
- Teodoro Golfín
- A skilled eye surgeon visiting his brother, he brings scientific knowledge and practical compassion into Pablo and Nela's world.
- Florentina
- Pablo's kind and educated cousin, she belongs to the comfortable family circle that hopes the two cousins will marry.
- Francisco Penáguilas
- Pablo's father is a prosperous landowner who hopes his son can gain sight and take a settled place in society.
- Celipín
- A village boy acquainted with Nela, he longs for education and a life beyond the poverty surrounding them.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 62,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 5 min
- Listening time6 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 14 other languages
Questions about Marianela
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.
Is Marianela hard to read?
No. It has a clear structure and simple central story.
What is the main message of Marianela?
The novel suggests that we often judge by appearance and class, and that love built on illusion is fragile. It also asks whether truth and science are enough without compassion for the people they affect.