Pereda and the Closure of the "Roman à Thèse": From Don Gonzalo González de la Gonzalera to Peñas arriba

When taken separately, neither the ideological, nor the semiotic, nor the aesthetic approaches suffice to explain the impact of the "roman a these" in the years immediately following the Bourbon Restoration in 1875. Only by acknowledging the positive reception of the "roman a these" by its contemporaries can one only begin to contest those critics who disclaim it as a pseudo-artistic, monologic genre. Dorca discusses these issues and proposes that the novel "Don Gonzalo" can be read as Jose Maria de Pereda's "roman a these par excellence."