SOURCE: Oakley, R. J. “The Problematic Unity of Guzmán de Alfarache.” In Hispanic Studies in Honour of Joseph Manson, edited by Dorothy M. Atkinson and Anthony H. Clarke, pp. 185-206. Oxford: The Dolphin Book Co. Ltd., 1972.

In the following essay, Oakley examines themes of honor and necessity in Guzmán de Alfarache, concluding that Alemán's work centers on the moral weakness of humanity and its need for divine help in obtaining salvation.

In his recent biography of Mateo Alemán, Donald McGrady provided a summary of recent trends in criticism of Guzmán de Alfarache, remarking that although, on the whole, the twentieth century critics have rehabilitated the moralistic digressions in it, they have erred to the other extreme, exaggerating the importance of these digressions ‘at the expense of the action, which is always the essence of fiction.’¹

We venture to suggest that although in one...