La maja desnuda

Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente, 1867-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 564K words
Chapters: 57

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.La maja desnuda by Vicente Blasco IbáñezAuthor: Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente, 1867-1928,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Jun 24, 2013

Editor's review

This is a novel by Blasco Ibáñez written in Spanish, its title taken from Goya's painting The Nude Maja, and it revolves around art, desire, and social hypocrisy. The author is one of the representative writers of Spanish realism and naturalism in the late nineteenth century, with a powerful pen and a talent for depicting the social scene of Valencia and Madrid. The novel offers detailed portrayals of the vanity of the artist circle, the moral double standards of the aristocracy, and possessiveness in love; psychological description is dense and the plot is markedly dramatic. For readers studying Spanish literature, researching the reception of Goya, or interested in the tension between art and morality, this book has considerable value. When reading, note the blunt descriptions under its naturalist technique and the limitations of period attitudes. A Chinese translation can serve as an introduction, while the Spanish original is better suited to advanced readers who wish to appreciate the rhythm of the language.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of Spanish literature and enthusiasts of Latin American literature
Readers interested in Goya and the reception history of his works
Literary readers studying the relationship between art and morality
Readers with some Spanish who wish to advance to reading the original

Not a good fit for

Casual readers who prefer light romance or comedy
Those sensitive to blunt naturalist description and period attitudes
Readers with no Spanish who are unwilling to find a translation

Reading tips

First learn the basic background of Goya's The Nude Maja and The Clothed Maja, then read the opening.
Spanish readers can first read through the plot, then return to the passages of psychological description and dialogue to appreciate the style.
After finishing, compare with materials on late nineteenth-century Spanish society to understand the novel's critique of the aristocracy and the art world.

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 relationship between the title and Goya's famous painting?

The title is taken directly from Goya's The Nude Maja; the novel uses this painting and related artistic topics as one of its threads, exploring the tension between artistic creation, desire, and social morality. Understanding the painting's background helps grasp the book's themes.

Is this book suitable for Spanish beginners?

Not very suitable for readers starting from zero. The original has long sentences, dense description, and period diction. Intermediate or higher Spanish reading ability is recommended, or first read a Chinese translation to become familiar with the plot before attempting the original.

Is there any content to be aware of beforehand?

As a work with naturalist tendencies, the book contains blunt erotic description and expressions of attitudes limited by their time. Readers should view it from the perspective of literary history rather than equating it with contemporary value judgments.

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

Blasco Ibáñez, Vicente, 1867-1928 Author

Vicente Blasco Ibáñez (1867–1928) was a Spanish novelist. Public information on the details of his life is limited, yet the character of his work is fairly clear. The library holds 46 of his works, including such representative titles as Sangre y arena, Cañas y barro, Los cuatro jinetes del apocalipsis, La Barraca, Flor de mayo and La bodega. His fiction often draws on rural Valencia and the lives of the urban poor, written in a realistic vein and skilled at portraying the natural landscape and its entanglement with human fate, combining regional colour with social criticism. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, set against war, brought him a wider international readership. Overall, his novels occupy a place in the transition of Spanish literature from realism to modern narrative.