{"product_id":"his-only-son-leopoldo-alas-9781681370187","title":"His Only Son: With Dona Berta","description":"The unlikely hero of \u003ci\u003eHis Only Son\u003c\/i\u003e, Bonifacio Reyes, is a romantic and a flautist by vocation--and a failed clerk and kept husband by necessity--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--but is it Bonifacio's? In the accompanying novella, \u003ci\u003eDo a Berta\u003c\/i\u003e, 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhile 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 and humorous effect in fiction. \u003ci\u003eHis Only Son \u003c\/i\u003ewas Alas's second and final novel, full of characteristic humor, naturalistic detail, descriptive beauty, and moral complexity. His frail and pitiful characters--irrational, emotional actors drawn inexorably toward their foolish fates--are yet multidimensional individuals, often conscious of their own weaknesses and stymied by their very yearnings to be more than the parts they find themselves playing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Leopoldo Alas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1681370182\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781681370187\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e New York Review of Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/04\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/29\/2016","brand":"Leopoldo Alas","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43937197490431,"sku":"9781681370187","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_a05a3ed6-8fe9-46d6-ba62-6dbc3f92be2e.jpg?v=1681428678","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/his-only-son-leopoldo-alas-9781681370187","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}