Reworkings on 20th of Manuel Fernández y González’s novels

An author thought different editorial business models

Abstract

Manuel Fernández y González was the most prolific and sell novelist of the 19th century. Author of almost two-hundred known titles, the rise of the novel by parts as an editorial business allows him to enjoy a success without precedents in the Spanish literature, even if in good measure that format conditioned entirely his texts and ballasted the literary quality of his production; many times his works had to lengthen excessively to content the demands of the public and to be more profitable. A century later, in the 20th, Fernández y González continued to be reissued, but the model of the novel by parts no longer existed; the publishing houses who wanted to publish his works again had to face the problem about that texts conditioned by the old industry of the novel by parts. In order to adapt that works to the market of these moment, the managers of that publishes had to change substantially the original text, abbreviating, by different ways, what originally was so much large; the changes introduced are so many and so significant that it allows us to speak about co-creation and reworking around an original text.