According to Wikipedia: "Benito Pérez Galdós (May 10, 1843 – January 4, 1920) was a Spanish realist novelist. Considered second only to Cervantes in stature, he was the leading Spanish realist novelist… Galdós was a prolific writer, publishing 31 novels, 46 Episodios Nacionales (National Episodes), 23 plays, and the equivalent of 20 volumes of shorter fiction, journalism and other writings. He remains popular in Spain, and galdosistas (Galdós researchers) considered him Spain's equal to Dickens, Balzac and Tolstoy. As recently as 1950, few of his works were available translated to English, although he has slowly become popular in the Anglophone world."