La Regenta: faithful testimony of the political and religious context of the Bourbon Restoration

Abstract

La Regenta, a work of cardinal importance for contemporary literature, is a faithful testimony of the political, social and cultural context of the Spanish 19th-century. In this article we study the political and religious aspects of the narrative. A national picture meticulously described through which the writer, with great expertise, makes an analogy of the struggle for power between church and state through the acrimonious battle for control of the heroine, played by the both main political character of the city and the master cathedral. The story of Leopoldo Alas "Clarín" offers us rich nuances of the historical period of the Restoration, making literature a valuable and prolific source of historical research.