Tales of Love

Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de, 1852-1921Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 375K words
Chapters: 38

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.Cuentos de amor by condesa de Emilia Pardo BazánAuthor: Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de, 1852-1921,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Sep 9, 2017

Editor's review

This is a collection of love stories by the Spanish woman writer Emilia Pardo Bazán. Known for her realist manner, she examines emotion within concrete social circumstances: class differences, family pressure, and the different ethics of country and city become the backdrop of these love stories rather than mere decoration. The narrator's calm is palpable—she does not rush to lyricise on the characters' behalf but lets detail and dialogue speak for themselves, so the stories often leave a lingering note of something unsaid at the end. For readers interested in nineteenth-century Spanish literature, or in how a woman author handles love and marriage, this collection offers well-proportioned samples in carefully wrought language. The Spanish original carries period syntax and is suited to readers with some grounding in Spanish, as well as to literature classes choosing pieces for discussion.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Language learners with intermediate or higher Spanish reading ability
Readers interested in nineteenth-century Spanish literature and the realist style
Readers studying how women writers handle love and marriage
Lovers of the short story willing to read closely into characters' circumstances

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Spanish who need a parallel translation to read
Readers expecting light, romantic stories with happy endings
Readers who prefer strong plot conflict and fast-paced narrative

Reading tips

Read one or two stories at a time; pause after each to savour the ending's lingering note before moving on.
Notice how the author uses everyday detail to establish class and circumstance, marking passages that strike you.
Spanish learners can take one story for paragraph-by-paragraph close reading and map the relationships and key dialogue.
For classroom discussion, compare the situations of women across the stories to see where the author's attitude differs or converges.

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

Can I read this book without any Spanish?

This is the Spanish original, and absolute beginners will find it very hard going. Intermediate Spanish ability is advisable, or look for an edition with a translation alongside. If you only want a sense of the author's style, you could start with Chinese translations of Pardo Bazán's work.

Are these love stories of the sweet, romantic kind?

No. The author leans toward realism, presenting love under the pressures of class, family and ethics; the stories do not necessarily end happily, and the tone is restrained. Readers hoping for light, sweet romantic sketches may find these stories cool, even somewhat heavy.

What does Pardo Bazán focus on in this collection?

These stories show her interest in the relationship between emotion and social circumstance: how characters choose amid class differences, family expectations and rural or urban ethics. Love is the entry point; behind it lies an observation and scrutiny of nineteenth-century Spanish social life.

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About the author

Pardo Bazán, Emilia, condesa de, 1852-1921 Author

Emilia Pardo Bazán (1852–1921) was a Spanish writer of noble birth. Her work has received relatively limited attention in the Chinese-speaking world, and publicly available material on her remains insufficient, yet her writing holds an important place in Spanish literary history. Her novels are often set in the Galician countryside of northwestern Spain, with a realistic touch that attends to social customs, family ethics and character psychology. Her major works include Los pazos de Ulloa, La madre naturaleza, La Tribuna and Morriña. She also wrote short stories and essays on love, marriage and women's circumstances, marked by detailed narrative and keen observation. Nineteen of her works are held in this collection, commonly classified under inspirational growth, suggesting that her writing also offers readable reflections on growth and life themes.