His Only Son
Leopoldo Alas
New York Review Books
The unlikely hero of <i>His Only Son</i>, Bonifacio Reyes, is a romantic and a flautist by vocation&#8212;and a failed clerk and kept husband by necessity&#8212;who dreams of a novelesque life. Tied to his shrill and sickly wife by her purse strings, he enters timidly into a love affair with Serafina, a seductive second-rate opera singer, encouraged by her manager who mistakes Bonifacio for a potential patron. Meanwhile, Bonifacio's wife experiences a parallel awakening and in the midst of a long-barren marriage, surprises them both with a son&#8212;but is it Bonifacio's? In the accompanying novella, <i>Do&ntilde;a Berta</i>, the heroine of the title, an aged, poor, but well-born woman, forfeits her beloved estate in search of a portrait that may be all that remains of the secret love of her life. <br>While largely unknown outside of Spain, Leopoldo Alas was one of the most celebrated writers of criticism in nineteenth-century Spain and employed his satirical talents to powerful...</br>