Charles Dickens and the London of Baroja and Pérez de Ayala

Abstract

The present article explores the vision of the city of London that Benito Pérez Galdós, Pío Baroja and Ramón Pérez de Ayala construct via both the reading of the works by their much admired Charles Dickens, and their own visits to the city. This results in a process that could be denominated “discovery through recognition”. In particular, the article discusses Pío Baroja’s impressions and perception of London, and analyses fragments not only from La ciudad de la niebla and his Memorias, as previous comparative studies usually do, but also from Los impostores joviales, Laura, o La soledad sin remedio, “Los espectros del castillo”, and El hotel del cisne.

Keywords

• Pío Baroja
• Charles Dickens
• Benito Pérez Galdós
• Ramón Pérez de Ayala
• London