The Shadow of the Wind question

I totally agree. I've read all four books at this point. People point out Isabella (Daniels mother) as being a strong female character, but I have the same feeling about her as Nuria- they exist to love unhealthy people who don't treat them well and in the end they die for them. It all reminds me a little too much of "The Woman dies," by Aoko Matsuda. https://granta.com/the-woman-dies/

I love the incredible plot and the beautiful language... the gothic literature style... but the female characters leave much to be desired.

I think you raise some really good points about the depictions of female characters in this book. I think one of the problems is that the main character is male and all of the really significant supporting characters are male (Daniel's father, Carax, Fermin). Bea isn't a fully developed character. For an interesting comparison, check out Angel's Game if you haven't already. It that book, Zafon has a character named Isabella who is a really strong female character and has a great deal more depth than any of the other female characters in Shadow. I think a second problem is that Shadow's characters are often caricatures... larger than life in many ways. Here I think Zafon is fair to both sexes in caricatured representations of characters. The overly feminine and angelic Clara and Bea and the boisterous, smooth, larger than life personalities of Clara's uncle and Fermin.