Graftings

Abstract

La Regenta poses a complex problem. Not only are readers challenged to understand how Clarín has reworked Madame Bovary, but they must also take into consideration that he is at the same time responding to Eçâs treatment of Flaubert in O primo Basílio. To grasp Clarín’s social commentary, it is necessary to explore how he has departed from Eça’s rewriting.¹ The most obvious divergence between the Spanish and Portuguese reworkings of Madame Bovary regards what each adds to the plot of the model. Eça’s main departure from Flaubert is the introduction of Juliana, a greedy servant who extorts money from the heroine after discovering her adultery. In responding to Eça’s novel in La Regenta, Clarín includes a similar figure. Chapters 28 and 29 describe how Ana Ozores’s maid, Petra, uses her knowledge of the affair to ruin her mistress and improve her own lot in life. As in O primo Basílio, the servant’s plotting governs the novel’s plot after the heroine’s fall: Petra’s machinations neatly determine the ending of La Regenta.