SOURCE: "Pascual Duarte and Orestes," in Symposium, Vol. XXII, No. 4, Winter, 1968, pp. 301-18.

In the following essay, Bernstein presents parallels between Cela's La familia de Pascual Duarte and the myth of Orestes.

Classical mythology has continued to be a fruitful source of themes for the contemporary writer. Although no comprehensive survey exists of the presence of mythological material in modern European literature, several partial treatments have appeared. Classical mythology has also been a suggestive basis for studies in criticism and literary aesthetics. The modern writer often finds important stimuli in mythological motifs. A case in point is the Spaniard, Camilo José Cela, whose first novel, La familia de Pascual Duarte, appeared in 1942.

The diversity of critical estimation of this work bespeaks the presence in it of profound human issues and of several questions left unresolved by the author. We encounter in the novel a remarkable number of correspondences...