La Regenta

La Regenta is a realist novel published in 1885 by Spanish writer and journalist Leopoldo Alas. Set in the fictional city of Vetusta, which is loosely modeled after Oviedo, capital of the northern Spanish province of Asturias, it follows a young woman named Ana “La Regenta” Ozores. Ana marries an older, well-known senior politician named Victor Quintanar and soon finds her marriage existentially unfulfilling. She starts an affair with a local womanizer named Alvaro Mesia. Her extramarital relationship results in another man, cleric D. Fermin de Pas, falling for her. Alvaro and Fermin spar over Ana as an eclectic host of secondary characters play out their lives.

Almost the entirety of La Regentatakes place in the fictional Vetusta. It is strongly implied that Vetusta is an alternate name for Oviedo, since the two share an origin myth in which two monks named John and Nolan establish the city together. Spanning three years, the novel begins shortly after Ana and Victor’s wedding. Ana is perceived as extremely beautiful by the people who know her, and she has a deep awareness of Spanish culture. Her husband, Victor, is the city’s ex-magistrate, and besides his social capital, he has few distinguishing traits.

Ana meets the Catholic priest who has been assigned to her, Fermin de Pas, and confesses that she is tired of her marriage. Among other reasons, she laments that her husband is infertile, so she can never bear a child under wedlock. She also reveals her simultaneous lust for the bachelor and casanova Alvaro Mesias.



As the months go on, Ana continues meeting with Fermin, who she comes to rely on as a spiritual guide and social confidant. To Ana, Fermin represents salvation from sexual unhappiness and the hope of one day bearing a child. The priest helps Ana rein in her impulses. Along the way, however, he realizes that he is falling in love with her.

Meanwhile, Victor becomes increasingly bitter and reclusive, spending most of his free time in his room reviewing Spanish dramas and envisioning himself in the positions of betrayed male figures. The role he particularly imprints on is that of the betrayed husband who kills his wife and her partner after learning that she has carried on an affair. During the same period, Alvaro figures out that Ana is interested in him and subtly tries to court her. After he gains confidence, his advances grow more explicit, and Ana is further torn between her two new love prospects.

As this love entanglement develops, the upper-class social sphere that Ana and Victor inhabit becomes privy to signals of social and romantic infidelity. They also learn about the identities of Alvaro and Fermin. Soon, they begin to side between husband and wife, talking openly and frequently about their marriage as if it is in a state of inevitable collapse. Distressed and with little to lose, Ana finally agrees to be Alvaro’s lover. She conceals the affair from Victor, while Victor becomes paranoid about a flirtatious relationship he has had with their maid, Petra. He decides to fire Petra to prevent her from revealing his indiscretions. Upset at Victor for her dismissal, Petra creates chaos by telling Fermin that Ana has been sleeping with Alvaro. Fermin grows enraged and jealous, and asks Petra to adjust Victor’s clock so that he will wake up early and observe Alvaro sneaking out of Ana’s room.



The scheme goes as planned, and Victor realizes that he has been in the dark. He demands that Alvaro duel him. While Alvaro’s friend, Frigilis, tries to convince him to flee town and avoid this deadly event, Alvaro accepts the duel. He slays Victor and emerges victorious. Even having won the duel, Alvaro decides it is best to flee Vetusta. Ana is therefore left a widow and social pariah. The Vetustans banish her, formally removing her status as citizen, and Fermin excommunicates her from the church.

La Regenta is a novel that illuminates the callous scapegoating of women in nineteenth century Spanish society, and in Western literature more generally. At the same time, Ana’s story shows that it is possible for women to reject social norms and survive, and even sometimes end up better off than their male equivalents.