El amigo Manso

by Benito Pérez Galdós

"El amigo Manso" by Benito Pérez Galdós is a novel published in 1882. The protagonist, Máximo Manso, is an idealistic intellectual who narrates his own story—despite claiming not to exist. In Restoration-era Madrid, Manso becomes attached to his student Manolito and the young woman Irene, but his idealism blinds him to reality. Through a metafictional frame where the deceased narrator questions his own existence, Galdós critiques Spanish intellectual life and society, portraying a world where idealists struggle against deception and self-delusion.