Benito Pérez Galdós was one of the greatest representatives of the Spanish realist novel in the 19th century.
He was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canarias in 1843 and collaborated from a very young age in the local newspaper El Omnibus.
He studied the Bachelor of Arts in Tenerife from where he later moved to Madrid to study law.
Once in the capital, he began to frequent gatherings in the Ateneo and in different cafes of the time where he coincided with numerous intellectuals and artists.
In 1873 he published the first series of his famous Episodios Nacionales (National Episodes), which achieved great popularity, repeating itself years later with the publication of the second series.
He wrote numerous novels that dealt with crucial issues of social life such as La fontana de oro, Doña Perfecta, Gloria or Marianela.
He traveled throughout Europe as a war correspondent, soaking up many of the literary currents that proliferated at the time.
His work is clearly influenced by French writers such as Honoré Balzac, Émile Zola and Flaubert; glimpses of the work of the English writer Charles Dickens can also be seen.
He was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Literature, an award that was not granted due to his marked anticlericalism.
He also participated in political life as a member of Sagasta's Progressive Party and even became a congressman for Guayama, Puerto Rico.
With the new century he joined the Republican Party and was a deputy for many years.
Correos dedicates a stamp to one of the greatest representatives of Spanish letters, which shows a beautiful portrait of the writer, in a close-up, where he appears with a relaxed air looking directly at the camera.
