Being Too Clever

Valera, Juan, 1824-1905Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 287K words
Chapters: 29

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.Pasarse de listo by Juan ValeraAuthor: Valera, Juan, 1824-1905,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jul 17, 2007

Editor's review

Pasarse de listo is a novella by the Spanish writer Juan Valera; the title roughly means "to be too clever," and the story revolves around how cunning and conceit rebound upon their owner, with Valera's characteristic ironic tone and fine observation of human affairs. Valera is known for psychological portrayal and an elegant style; this work is short but writes characters' calculations, misunderstandings, and self-justifications with clear layers, offering both comedy and a cool examination of human weakness. As a public-domain Spanish ebook, it is a light entry point into nineteenth-century Spanish narrative literature and also suits Spanish learners as close-reading material. As you read, note the narrator's subtle attitude toward the characters' "cleverness": the author does not judge directly but lets the plot complete the irony. Read through once to grasp the direction of the story, then return to key dialogues and psychological passages to appreciate the sense of measure in the language.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Spanish majors needing a close-reading text of nineteenth-century Spanish narrative
Literary readers interested in satire and the observation of human nature
Learners at intermediate Spanish or above who wish to practice reading originals in short form
Readers studying Valera's work or the Spanish realist tradition

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Spanish at all who need a Chinese translation
Readers who prefer strongly plotted, fast-paced genre fiction
Readers seeking long masterworks or a complete literary history

Reading tips

Read the whole text first to grasp the plot, then reread the characters' dialogues, noting how "cleverness" turns step by step into error.
Read the narrator's tone against the characters' self-justifications to see in which sentences the irony lies.
Spanish learners can excerpt psychological passages for close reading and build up nineteenth-century written expression.
After finishing, summarize in a few sentences the work's attitude toward "cleverness" to check whether you have grasped its main point.

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

What is the language and difficulty of this book?

The original is in Spanish and is a public-domain electronic text. Valera's style is refined and the sentences are rather literary, but the work is short and its plot concentrated; readers with intermediate Spanish or above can finish it with a dictionary, while beginners may find it difficult.

What does the title "Pasarse de listo" mean?

The expression roughly means "to be too clever" or "to be clever beyond measure," pointing to situations where conceited cunning backfires. The title itself signals the work's core theme: how a character's calculations end up harming himself; keep this thread in mind as you observe the plot's development.

Can I read this book without any Spanish?

The source indicates the book is a Spanish public-domain ebook and provides no information on a Chinese translation. Readers without Spanish will find reading the original directly quite difficult; it is advisable to look for a reliable translation first, or keep the book as original-reading material for after you have learned Spanish.

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About the author

Valera, Juan, 1824-1905 Author

Juan Valera (1824–1905) was a Spanish novelist, and sixteen of his works are held in this collection. Public information about him is limited, and his nationality and detailed biography are not specified in the collection. His representative works include Pepita Jiménez, Juanita La Larga, Doña Luz, Genio y figura, and the two-volume Las Ilusiones del Doctor Faustino. His novels often take the conflict between love and religious feeling as their subject, written in a delicate and restrained style, with careful psychological portrayal and scenic description, frequently set in the Andalusian countryside. His language is elegant yet witty, giving him a distinctive place in nineteenth-century Spanish realist literature. All the works mentioned are available in the collection for readers who wish to learn more about his writing.