With You, Bread and Onion

Gorostiza, Manuel Eduardo de, 1789-1851Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.9

Word count: 220K words
Chapters: 23

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.Contigo Pan y Cebolla by Manuel Eduardo de GorostizaAuthor: Gorostiza, Manuel Eduardo de, 1789-1851,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

Contigo Pan y Cebolla is a representative comedy by the Mexican playwright Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza. The title translates roughly as "Bread and Onions," highlighting the plain backdrop of daily livelihood and family life. The play advances through dialogue, with lively character speech and the stage feel of nineteenth-century Spanish-language comedy; it is suited to reading aloud to appreciate its rhythm and satire. As a public-domain Project Gutenberg e-book, it is easy to obtain free of charge and suitable for classroom use, but the text is plain and lacks notes and an introduction, so readers need to supplement the historical background themselves. Its reading value lies in observing how early Latin American national theater used family themes to discuss social customs and generational attitudes; it is also suitable for Spanish learners building everyday expressions.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Spanish majors who need to read Latin American drama in the original
Readers interested in Mexican literature and nineteenth-century drama
Intermediate and advanced Spanish learners who want to practice dialogue reading through plays
Drama enthusiasts looking for public-domain short plays to read aloud

Not a good fit for

Absolute beginners in Spanish who would struggle to understand the original dialogue
Literary researchers needing detailed notes and scholarly introductions
General readers who prefer long novels or modern narrative works

Reading tips

Read a Chinese or English plot summary first, then move to the Spanish original to lower the barrier to understanding.
Read act by act aloud, paying attention to characters' tones and stage directions to appreciate the comic rhythm.
Mark everyday idioms and family terms and make Spanish learning cards.
Combine with material on nineteenth-century Mexican social background to understand the play's satire of customs.

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 a novel or a play?

It is a dramatic work composed of character dialogue and stage directions, suitable for reading aloud or performance-style reading rather than as a continuously narrative novel.

What Spanish level is needed to read it?

Intermediate or higher Spanish reading ability is recommended, enough to understand everyday dialogue and basic literary expression; beginners can read alongside a translation or summary.

Does the e-book edition have notes and an introduction?

This edition comes from Project Gutenberg and is a public-domain electronic text, usually containing only the main text with few notes or scholarly introductions, so readers need to supplement background material themselves.

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

Gorostiza, Manuel Eduardo de, 1789-1851 Author · Mexican · 1789–1851

Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789–1851) was a Mexican playwright and diplomat, widely recognized as an important pioneer of Mexican drama. He lived through the social upheavals surrounding Mexican independence, and his writing career was intertwined with his diplomatic service. His works often bring everyday language and ordinary townspeople onto the stage, revealing observations of reality through comedy and depictions of local customs. His representative play, Contigo Pan y Cebolla, takes its title from the everyday image of bread and onions and uses scenes of common life to portray human relations, making it a representative text of Mexico's early national theater. The database currently holds only one of his works, and public information on his education, specific diplomatic posts, and the phases of his writing is limited, making detailed discussion difficult. His influence lies mainly in providing an early model for the development of a native Mexican dramatic language and subject matter, inspiring later playwrights.