Excerpt:
...In that novel, the reader is introduced to Francisco Torquemada, namesake of Ferdinand and Isabella’s inquisitor general.
Dr. Rhian Davies, Director of the Pérez Galdós Editions Project, has provided a summary page of the Torquemada novels:
In 1889 Galdós wrote Torquemada en la hoguera for the important cultural review La España Moderna. The novel is centered on the Madrid moneylender Francisco Torquemada, who had previously appeared in other Galdós novels, notably La de Bringas (1884) and Fortunata y Jacinta (1886-87). Like his namesake, the Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, Francisco de Torquemada, otherwise known as 'el Peor' [‘the Worse’], is renowned for his cruelty towards his fellow men.......[Torquemada proceeds to give Doña Lupe a lesson in the art of lending.]
(Page 296) The ex-halberdier was opposed to “the materialism” of legally insured mortgages at reasonable interest rates. Risky loans with very high returns were his delight, because even though one might not collect until the night before the Last Judgment, most of the victims fell foolishly into the trap for fear of scandal, and the money doubled itself quickly. He could smell a punctilious person a mile off and knew who would rather lose his skin than get a bad name. These were the ones he dug into and glutted himself on.
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