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His Only Son: with Dona Berta (New York Review Books Classics)
His Only Son with Dona Berta - New York Review Books Classics Author:Leopoldo Alas One of the most celebrated writers of criticism in nineteenth-century Spain, Leopoldo Alas employed his satirical talent to powerful and humorous effect in fiction as well. — In His Only Son, Bonifacio Reyes, a romantic flautist by vocation?and a failed clerk and kept husband by necessity?dreams of a novelesque life. Tied to his shrill and sickly... more » wife by her purse strings, he enters timidly into a love affair with Serafina, a seductive second-rate opera singer, encouraged by her manager who mistakes Bonifacio for a potential patron. Meanwhile, Bonifacio?s wife experiences a parallel awakening and in the midst of a long-barren marriage, surprises them both with a son?but is it Bonifacio?s?
In the accompanying novella, Doņa Berta, an aged, poor, but well-born woman forfeits her beloved estate in search of a portrait that may be all that remains of the secret love of her life.« less