Episodios Nacionales

The great narrative frieze of the National Episodes served as a vehicle for Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) to recreate in it, novelly set, the entire complex life of the Spanish (wars, politics, daily life, popular reactions) to what throughout the hectic nineteenth century. This case brings together, in two volumes, the ten episodes that make up the First Series and which, headed by "Trafalgar", a warlike prologue that introduces us to Gabriel de Araceli, protagonist and guiding thread of the series, cover and describe the War of the independence. Starting with the Spanish-French alliance present in the naval battle, we are witnessing the political intrigues and the acts that properly lead to the reversal of the tables and, thus, to the war: the surreptitious occupation of the country by Napoleon's troops, the flight from the court, the uprising of May 2 in Madrid, the withdrawal of the courts to Cádiz, the outstanding victory of Bailén, the sieges of Zaragoza and Gerona, the popular resistance embodied by guerrillas such as Juan Martín el Empecinado and the decisive battle of the Arapiles.