8 h 32 minAudiobook18 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a good name protect when a secret threatens both a marriage and a friendship?
Among Madrid’s respectable families, Orozco wants a home built on honor, good faith and peace. His wife, Augusta, maintains the calm face of their marriage while struggling with feelings she cannot openly show. Their friend Federico Viera brings desire and duty into uneasy conflict, with a secret placing both bonds at risk.
In Reality, Benito Pérez Galdós lets conversation carry much of the drama. What people hide behind their words matters as much as what they say. Rosalía Pipaón brings the pressure of social opinion into view, while the household faces a difficult question: what does a person owe to love, honor and truth?
What you’ll discover
- A marriage under pressure Look beneath Augusta’s composed manner to the feelings she cannot safely share.
- Friendship caught between loyalties Follow Federico Viera as desire pulls against his wish to act rightly.
- The reach of gossip See how Madrid society presses on private lives, making reputation a constant concern.
- Words that conceal feeling Listen closely to conversations where polite speech leaves strong emotions just beneath the surface.
- The cost of appearances Consider what keeping a respectable face demands when private feelings resist public rules.
Who will love it
You will love it if you enjoy stories of marriage, secrets and social masks, sharp talk in Madrid salons, and characters who argue about honor, goodness and the difference between how things look and how they are.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Madrid salon chatters while secrets wait
- Orozco's secret creed and Augusta's sleepless dream
- Federico lives on charm, pride and borrowed money
- A secret hideaway and a wall between lovers
- Clotilde flees and Joaquín Viera arrives
- Orozco's startling answer to a creditor
- Gratitude, refusal and rumor close in
- Shadows crowd a sleepless night
- Reality, honor and the masks that fit
Who’s who
- Tomás OrozcoA wealthy, admired Madrid gentleman who hides acts of charity and a private creed of perfect goodness, and who wants his wife to share it.
- AugustaOrozco's clever, restless wife, who craves the unusual, loves Federico, and tries to bring him comfort and order against his pride.
- Federico VieraA charming, penniless gentleman with old-fashioned ideas of honor, who borrows to live and cannot accept help from the man he wrongs.
- Joaquín VieraFederico's father, a witty, flattering schemer who returns from America with a claim on Orozco and a ready answer for every reproach.
- Leonor, called La PeriA lively, generous woman of the night, once Federico's lover and now his closest friend, who is ready to pawn her jewels for him.
- Cornelio MalibránA vain, gossiping diplomat who is rejected by Augusta and sets out to find her lover and expose her.
- Manolo InfanteAugusta's cousin and an able politician, who covets her and studies every face in the house for the secret.
- Clotilde VieraFederico's sister, who falls in love with a grocery clerk across the street and runs off to marry him.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 8 h 32 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 18 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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Read and hear Reality in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Reality
by Benito Pérez Galdós · 1889
Saintly Tomás Orozco treats his wife as his pupil, while she meets Federico Viera in a secret hideaway.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Reality is a novel by Benito Pérez Galdós, finished in Madrid in July 1889. It is told almost entirely through dialogue, with stage directions and with the private thoughts of the characters spoken aside, so you hear both the polite mask and the voice behind it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Madrid salon chatters while secrets wait
The novel opens on a mild winter night in the drawing room of Tomás Orozco, a wealthy man whose house is open to half of Madrid. Guests arrive for cards, billiards and talk before the late dinner is over. Villalonga complains that the gentle weather keeps old senators alive, because he is waiting for one of the few seats for life. Aguado, home from Cuba, thunders against corruption and wants to go back with full powers. Don Carlos de Cisneros, an old collector, answers every speech with a joke at the speaker's expense.
Everyone argues about a famous murder case that fills the newspapers. Teresa Trujillo defends her chosen suspect with the fury of a prosecutor, while Augusta, the lady of the house, loves whichever theory is strangest. Manolo Infante favors the dull official version. The quarrel is silly and funny, yet it plants the question that runs through the whole book. Is the true story the neat one that suits the courts, or the odd one that life may really hold?
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What is Reality by Benito Pérez Galdós about?
It is about Tomás Orozco, a rich Madrid gentleman famed for his goodness, his wife Augusta, and her love for Federico Viera, a proud and ruined friend. Money, gossip, a greedy father and a secret creed of goodness tighten around them.
Is Reality a play or a novel?
It is a novel, finished in Madrid in July 1889. It is told almost entirely in dialogue, with stage directions and characters thinking aloud in asides, so it reads in the lively way of a drama while staying a novel.
Who is Orozco in Reality?
Tomás Orozco is the rich, respected husband of Augusta. He gives money and help in secret and hates being thanked. He has built a private moral creed and hopes to lead his wife into it. Others call him a saint or a fraud.
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.
More by Benito Pérez Galdós
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