The bourgeoisie took its place at the centre of industrialised society. A working class emerged at the same time, bringing with it a new range of left-wing ideologies. Both, for a range of different reasons, made it necessary to fix society's gaze on the world around it. And literature was to carry most of that burden. In Spain, this is the time of realism in all its variations, the time of the movements known as Costumbrismo (based on customs and manners), Casticismo (reclaiming a genuinely Spanish identity), and Naturalism. The figure of Galdós casts his eye over the whole of the 19th century.