Electra

E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Chuck Greif, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

POR
EDITED WITH NOTES AND VOCABULARY
The Flexner School, Louisville, Ky.
NEW YORK . . . CINCINNATI . . . CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
Copyright, 1902, by OTIS GRIDLEY BUNNELL Entered at Stationers' Hall, London —— ELECTRA w. p. 12

————
Benito Pérez Galdós, the author of the following drama, was born May 10, 1845, at Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands. Through modesty, or reserve, he has withheld every biographical detail concerning his early life. In fact his biographer, Leopoldo Alas, tells us that it was only with the greatest difficulty he obtained from him the admission that he was born in the Canary Islands. He studied there in the State College, and came to Madrid in 1863, for the purpose of reading law. This profession held but little interest for him, and he did not follow it further. He was already dreaming of a literary career, and after a brief trial of journalism, his first novel, La Fontana de Oro (1871), was published.
In 1872 his next book, El Audaz , was completed. Then taking as a model the historical novels of Erckmann-Chatrian, he began his Episodios Nacionales , which alone fill twenty volumes. Add to this number some thirty volumes of Novelas Contemporáneas , and one sees the monument that Galdós offers us of the wonderful persistence and fertility of his talent.