ABSTRACT
Critics of Gald6s's novels acknowledge that Angel Guerra (1890-91) is one of the most thought-provoking works of this writer from the Canary Islands, and that it is full of acute perceptions about the process of spiritual conversion and the psychology of revolt. Despite this, until fairly recently these same critics have dealt harshly with the book, accusing it of the archetypal Spanish fault of being long-winded (see Clarin, 1912, p. 244), or of the peccadillo, to some extent excusable in Gald6s, of piling up so many episodes and secondary characters that in the end we are left dizzy from the sheer effort of reading (see Pardo Bazan, 1973).1 This latter critic is surely right when she concludes her subtle appreciation of the novel by saying that 'Gald6s's method creates the same problem as the horizontal flickering of Len~'s eyes: it makes one giddy and distracts one's attention' (pp. 1104-5).
