Don Juan Tenorio

Zorrilla, José, 1817-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 329K words
Chapters: 33

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.Don Juan Tenorio by José ZorrillaAuthor: Zorrilla, José, 1817-1893,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

Don Juan Tenorio is a representative play by the Spanish Romantic dramatist Zorrilla, written in Spanish and based on the long-standing Don Juan legend. The work adds Romantic imagination and religious coloring to the traditional material, weaving the libertine's excesses, the entanglements of love, and ultimate redemption into a highly theatrical drama. The play advances through dialogue and monologue, with vivid characters and frequent plot turns; it serves both as an entry point to the dramatic tradition after Spain's Golden Age and as a way to experience the distinctive treatment of the Don Juan motif in Spanish literature. Note the contrasts between sin and repentance, fate and free will, and the interplay of lyrical passages with dramatic action. As a public-domain e-book, it is convenient for reading the original alongside a translation, and suits theater lovers as material for reading aloud or adaptation.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Spanish learners who want to read dramatic texts in the original
Readers interested in the Don Juan legend and the Spanish literary tradition
Students or enthusiasts of Western drama who need sample scripts
Theater practitioners and enthusiasts who want material for readings or adaptation

Not a good fit for

Beginners with no Spanish and no parallel translation
Readers who prefer modern novelistic narration and are unused to drama
Readers uninterested in religious themes and moralizing

Reading tips

Learn the basic outline of the Don Juan legend first, then enter the play and see how the author rewrites it.
Read act by act, reviewing character relationships and the development of the conflict after each.
Spanish learners can read through once for the plot, then closely read the monologues and verse passages.
For reading aloud or performance, mark the rhythm of dialogue and stage directions to feel the dramatic effect.

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 the original Spanish?

Yes. It is Zorrilla's play in the original Spanish, a public-domain e-book. Spanish readers can read it directly; others may use a reliable translation alongside to follow the plot, characters, and language features.

Can I understand it without having read the Don Juan legend?

Yes. The play itself sets out the characters and conflict, so you can follow the plot directly. Knowing the basic elements of the Don Juan motif in advance makes it easier to see the author's Romantic rewriting and the theme of religious redemption.

Is this a novel or a play, and how does reading it differ?

It is a play script, consisting mainly of dialogue, monologue, and stage directions rather than novelistic narration. Imagine the stage as you read, attend to characters' motives and staging, and proceed act by act to grasp the structure more easily than by reading straight through.

Comments

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About the author

Zorrilla, José, 1817-1893 Author

José Zorrilla (1817–1893) was a major poet and playwright of the Spanish Romantic period. Five of his works are held in this collection, covering both poetry and drama. The long Oriental poem Granada, Poema Oriental, preceded by the Legend of al-Hamar, appears in two volumes and draws on the legends of the Alhambra in richly imaginative, musical verse; the play Don Juan Tenorio recasts the Spanish legend of the libertine and remains a perennial classic of the Spanish stage; Recuerdos del Tiempo Viejo is a work of personal and period reminiscence. Also included is Modern Poets and Poetry of Spain. Public information on the details of his life is limited, yet his works have had a lasting influence on Spanish Romantic literature and later theatrical tradition.