ABSTRACT
Gillespie's article is representative of the dominant interest in the 1960s in Gald6s's treatment of psychology. Such criticism often fell into the realist fallacy of discussing chararacters as if they were real people; Gillespie mostly avoids this, stressing Gald6s's debt to Cervantes, particularly in his fascination with forms of obsession. Incomprehensibly, Gald6s's exploration of delusion and dreams, and his intertextual dialogue with the Quixote, have since the 1960s received little critical attention (apart from recent metafictional studies, which implicitly - and sometimes explicitly - draw parallels with Cervantes's work); time seems ripe for a revival, particularly since psychoanalytic criticism makes it possible to analyse the psychological aspects of Gald6s's texts without falling into the realist fallacy. Gillespie's Cervantine focus allows him to highlight Gald6s's use of irony: this would (rightly) become a favourite topic of Gald6s criticism in the 1970s. This article is particularly useful for the way it situates Gald6s's work in the context of the French, Russian and German realist novel (again, more cross-cultural work of this kind could be done today); and for its coverage of a wide range of novels by Gald6s, including many not otherwise represented in this anthology. The attention of readers relying on English translations is drawn to the perceptive comments on Miau (1963, Penguin, Harmondsworth) and Nazarin (1992, Oxford University Press, Oxford). This piece provides a good introduction for those coming to Gald6s's work for the first time.
