LA REGENTA

Set in the city of Vetusta, “La Regenta,” published in 1884, is one of the great novels of 19th-century Spanish literature and one of the most important in history, according to many critics. It tells a story of the clash between unbridled passion and desire against the chains of provincial social morality and betrayal.

It’s a naturalistic work that harshly portrays the atmosphere of a provincial city dominated by an idle upper class and a clergy that imposes a hypocritical and suffocating morality. Ana Ozores is the protagonist, a beautiful and young girl who marries Don Víctor Quintanar, a former regent of the Court of Vetusta, much older than her, selfish, and who lives in a world that has nothing to do with reality. Ana feels suffocated in her marriage and, due to her frustration, she is ensnared by Don Álvaro, the city’s womanizer, and by her own confessor, Don Fermín de Pas, who longs to make her his wife.