The Regent's Wife

Alas, Leopoldo, 1852-1901Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.7

Word count: 1.8M words
Chapters: 179

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.La Regenta by Leopoldo AlasAuthor: Alas, Leopoldo, 1852-1901,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Nov 16, 2005

Editor's review

La Regenta is the major novel by the nineteenth-century Spanish writer Leopoldo Alas, published here free of charge in its original Spanish by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain ebook. Set in a provincial town, the work centers on the spiritual predicament of the heroine Ana Ozores after her marriage, closely depicting the tension among religious atmosphere, public opinion, and personal desire; it is regarded as one of the milestones of the Spanish realist novel. Alas was both a writer and a literary critic, and his narration often carries irony and cool analysis, with dense psychological portrayal of characters and environmental description imbued with the texture of a social panorama. The value of reading this book lies in experiencing a three-dimensional picture of nineteenth-century Spanish society and one woman's struggle in the crevices of marriage, faith, and gossip. It is suitable as supplementary reading for courses in Spanish literature and for readers with patience for long realist novels. Because it is an electronic edition in the original Spanish, reading it requires some language foundation; consulting an annotated edition or a reference translation for comparison is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Spanish majors who need to study nineteenth-century Spanish novels in the original
Literature enthusiasts interested in Spanish realist literature
Readers researching themes of female images and public opinion
Readers who enjoy slow-paced psychological description and social panoramas

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no Spanish foundation who can read only Chinese translations
Readers who prefer fast-paced plots and short reads
Introductory readers who need extensive annotations and guided reading

Reading tips

First understand the social background of nineteenth-century Spain, then enter the main text; understanding will be smoother
Proceed chapter by chapter, sorting out character relationships and changes in public opinion after each part
Slow down when encountering long passages of psychological description and pay attention to the narrator's ironic tone
Read alongside a Chinese translation to reduce the difficulty of understanding the original

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or the original Spanish?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in Spanish and is the public-domain original text, not a Chinese translation. Chinese readers will need some Spanish or a translation for reference.

Can I read this without any Spanish?

Reading the original directly would be difficult. Start with a Chinese translation to follow the story, then return to the original to appreciate the style; if you're only interested in the story, a reliable translation is the better choice.

Is this suitable as classroom teaching material?

It can serve as supplementary reading for Spanish literature courses, especially for discussing characterization and social critique in realist fiction. But teachers need to provide background and language support; it is not suitable as a textbook for beginners.

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About the author

Alas, Leopoldo, 1852-1901 Author · Spanish · 1852–1901

Leopoldo Alas (1852–1901) was a Spanish novelist and literary critic, best known by his pen name Clarín. Active in the second half of the nineteenth century, he made his mark in both fiction and literary criticism. His representative novel La Regenta is noted for its delicate psychological portrayal and profound observation of social reality, and is regarded as an important work of Spanish realist literature; his other novel, Su único hijo, likewise centers on family and individual destiny, continuing his attention to the inner lives of his characters. In addition to fiction, he wrote literary criticism with a rigorous and perceptive style. Public information is limited, and details of his life and the full scope of his work remain to be further studied; yet on the evidence of the two works held here, he was skilled at revealing social conditions and human complexity through everyday scenes, and he influenced the later development of the Spanish novel.