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The story a callow, unobservant newly consecrated priest sent by the man in whose house his mother is housekeeper to assist his nephew run a dilapidated estate. The estate is controlled by a local peasant gamekeeper who accompanies the almost illiterate nephew in a continual hunt, having pimped his daughter to his master and intimidated the locals. The young priest, helpless to do more than straighten a bit of the paperwork proceeds to cause misery to those he cares for the most by the end of the main action. In this almost nothing interested me, as with most mid-19th novels I want to put everyone up against a wall and have special prejudice against the hidalgo. But the sly observations of the author preserve this from being a soap opera or morality tale but instead a portrait or erring humanity in a spare and unforgiving world. ( )

The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan was first published in Spain in 1886. It is set in 1868, the time of the Liberal Revolution that brought the vote for men over 25. The Carlists, backed by the aristocracy and the Catholic Church, opposed the Liberals. Towards the end of the book there's an election, wildly violent and blatantly corrupt, described in slapstick detail. An abbot and a priest are right in the thick of it. A great contrast to these hunting, drinking, fighting clerics is the newly ordained Father Julian, whom we meet in the first chapter, on his way to the House of Ulloa to provide guidance to the Marquis, the head of the House of Ulloa.

The pious, well-meaning, unworldly Father Julian is shocked by the unsavoury situation at the manor. His attempts to provide spiritual guidance to the marquis and to stem the corruption and disorder that surround him create new disasters. On his very first evening, Primitivo, the corrupt majordomo and the father of the serving girl who is the marquis's mistress, pours alcohol down the throat of his three-year-old grandchild. It's Gothic, and as you read on you're thinking, "Something terrible is going to happen," as though that's not terrible enough.

This is an extraordinary book, particularly considering that it was written in 1886. It's a gleeful satire of the corruption of society and the decline of the aristocracy in rural Spain. It's lively and funny, with characters a great deal larger than life. Highly recommended. ( )

Emilia Pardo Bazán reivindicó un "naturalismo" autóctono, de carácter castizo y propio de la literatura española. "Los Pazos de Ulloa" es una muestra de esta convicción y su obra más destacada. Como otras novelas europeas del cambio de siglo, es la saga de una clase social en decadencia: la aristocracia rural gallega. Dramáticas escenas entre personajes trazados con fuerza, descripciones intensas de una estructura política corrupta, alternan con las evocaciones del campo. Novela regional, pero no regionalista, no se limita en sus implicaciones a una región elegida por su pintoresquismo, sino que se inspira en esa ambientación para hacernos una declaración universal de la época. ( )

Supermodernísima doña Emilia. Muy recomendable ( )