All in Flight

Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 347K words
Chapters: 35

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.Todo al Vuelo by Rubén DaríoAuthor: Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916,Language: Spanish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 5, 2017

Editor's review

Todo al Vuelo is a Spanish-language work by the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío, part of the vein of his prose and short-piece writing. Darío is a leading figure of Spanish-language Modernism; his style prizes sound, colour and sensory imagery, and often treats art, city life and inner feeling with a light touch. The title translates roughly as “Everything in Flight,” and the writing has an essayistic flow; the pieces are short and suited to fragmented reading. As a public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg, it preserves the original text, giving readers direct access to the Spanish and making it suitable for reading alongside Darío’s poetry to observe how his prose language relates to his poetic expression. It is best read slowly, attending to the finer points of rhythm and wording rather than looking for plot momentum. For Spanish learners it can serve as advanced reading material, but a certain vocabulary is required. Note that the book is in the original Spanish with no Chinese parallel text, and that it dates from an early period, so some cultural allusions require background knowledge.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with some Spanish reading ability who want to encounter Modernist texts
Literature students studying Rubén Darío’s prose and poetic language
Readers who enjoy short essays and sketches and care about rhythm and imagery
Spanish learners who need public-domain Spanish texts for close-reading practice

Not a good fit for

Readers with no Spanish at all who want a Chinese translation
Readers who prefer strong plots and long narratives
Readers with little interest in the cultural allusions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Reading tips

Read one or two short pieces a day, then go back over the wording and sentence rhythm.
Keep a Spanish dictionary at hand: first read through for the gist, then work through difficult words paragraph by paragraph.
Read alongside Darío’s poetry to observe how his poetic language carries over into prose.
After reading, retell the imagery of a piece in your own words to test your understanding.

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, and what level is needed?

This is a public-domain Spanish ebook released by Project Gutenberg, with no Chinese parallel text. The texts are short but the language is carefully wrought and involves literary and cultural allusions. An intermediate or higher level of Spanish reading ability is recommended, with a dictionary for unfamiliar words; beginners might first read a Chinese selection of Darío’s poetry, then try the original short pieces.

What does Rubén Darío mainly write about in this book?

The book belongs to Darío’s prose and short-piece writing; the language has a Modernist sensory colouring and musicality and often revolves around art, urban feeling and inner experience rather than plot. Readers can treat it as a practice ground for language and imagery, focusing on rhythm, wording and pictorial effect rather than looking for a complete storyline.

Is it suitable as Spanish close-reading material?

Yes. The texts are short, making them easy to work through paragraph by paragraph; the language is carefully crafted, making it suitable for analysing sentence patterns, rhetoric and word choice. It is best to read a piece through for the gist first, then look up words and mark imagery sentence by sentence, and finally read aloud to feel the rhythm. Read alongside Darío’s poetry, it reveals the consistency of his style even more clearly.

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About the author

Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916 Author

Rubén Darío (Darío, Rubén, 1867-1916) is a central figure of Spanish American modernismo, and his work was foundational for Latin American literature from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. The library holds 22 of his works, including the poetry collections Azul..., Prosas Profanas, Cantos de Vida y Esperanza, Los Cisnes y otros poemas, El Canto Errante, and Poema del Otoño y otros poemas, as well as prose and story works such as Cuentos y crónicas, Todo al Vuelo, and La Caravana Pasa. His poetry is polished and musical, rich in symbol and sensory imagery, treating themes of life, hope, autumn, swans, and wandering, with a style both elegant and melancholic; his prose is flexible in tone, recording observations and impressions. He helped renew Spanish-language poetic form and deeply influenced later Latin American and Spanish-language literature. Public information is limited, and details of his birthplace, nationality, and specific experiences are not confirmed.