Ranchos

Viana, Javier de, 1868-1926Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 188K words
Chapters: 19

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.Ranchos (Costumbres del Campo) by Javier de VianaAuthor: Viana, Javier de, 1868-1926,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Dec 24, 2016

Editor's review

Ranchos (Costumbres del Campo) is a Spanish-language work by the Uruguayan writer Javier de Viana, prepared and released by Project Gutenberg and classified under Romance-language literature. The title states its subject: country estates and rural customs. Viana was born in the second half of the nineteenth century, and his writing often draws on Uruguayan country life; this work takes local customs as its object of observation. For Chinese readers its value is twofold, literary and ethnographic: it can be read as primary material in Spanish-language literature and as a window onto rural society in South America. Language is the main barrier; the Spanish original is not friendly to readers without prior knowledge. It suits Spanish learners as intensive reading material, or readers studying Latin American literature and rural narrative. Before reading, learn something of the period and regional background, then move into the individual chapters and appreciate the tone and perspective of its depiction of customs.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literature lovers with reading ability in Spanish
Readers studying Latin American literature and rural narrative
Spanish learners who want to learn South American rural customs through the original text
Readers collecting public-domain Spanish-language e-books

Not a good fit for

Ordinary readers with no Spanish who read only Chinese
Those expecting fast-paced plots or modern urban themes
Beginner language learners who need detailed notes and introductions

Reading tips

Before reading, learn about Viana's life and times and the Uruguayan rural background to reduce the difficulty of understanding.
Read the work as a record of customs, paying attention to its descriptions of details of rural life.
Spanish learners can select short passages for intensive reading and build up rural vocabulary and expressions.
Read it alongside histories of Latin American literature to grasp its place in regional literature.

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 Spanish? Can Chinese readers read it?

This is the Spanish original, with no Chinese translation included. Readers with Spanish reading ability can read it directly; those who know only Chinese will need a dictionary or a translation, otherwise they will find it hard to get into the text.

What is Ranchos mainly about?

Judging from the title and subtitle, the work focuses on country estates and rural customs and belongs to narrative writing on rural life. It presents the social features and customs of the Uruguayan countryside in a particular period rather than being a plot-driven novel.

Is this book suitable for Spanish beginners?

Not really for beginners or elementary learners. The original is literary writing and involves rural vocabulary and period background, with no notes or introduction. It is better suited to readers with some Spanish foundation who can read with reference works.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Viana, Javier de, 1868-1926 Author · Uruguayan · 1868–1926

Javier de Viana (1868–1926) was a Uruguayan writer known for his short stories depicting rural life and gaucho themes. His representative work, Ranchos, draws on the Uruguayan countryside, focusing on the daily circumstances and local customs of gaucho life with plain, concrete prose. Because public information is limited, details of his biography and the full range of his works are difficult to set out; yet from what is available, he excelled at portraying rural figures in the short-story form, in language close to everyday speech and marked by a strong sense of place. This kind of writing earned him a place in Uruguayan regional literature and offers later readers a literary window onto rural Uruguayan society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.