Cuentos fantásticos

by Rubén Darío

Los ocho CUENTOS FANTÁSTICOS recogidos en este volumen -seleccionados y prologados por Jose Olivio Jimenez- muestran cumplidamente el gran talento como fabulador del gran poeta nicaraguense RUBEN DARIO (1867-1916). En ellos encuentran cabida muy distintos matices de lo maravilloso y lo milagros piadosos que desafian las leyes naturales (Cuento de Noche Buena); vampirismo de caracter teosofico (Thanatopia); suenos de vasta proyeccion universal (La pesadilla de Honorio); la detencion del tiempo (El caso de la senorita Amelia); la presencia del diablo (Veronica, El Salomon negro); la reencarnacion y la metempsicosis (D.Q.); materializaciones sepulcrales (La larva); pesadillas terrorificas (Cuento de Pascuas), o el rescate del misterio que aun domina la vida cotidiana en las culturas primitivas (Huitzilopoxtli);. Completa el volumen un ensayo del propio Dario acerca de Edgar Poe y los suenos).

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy

117 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1979

About the author

Nicaraguan poet Félix Rubén García Sarmiento initiated and epitomizes Spanish literary modernism. Dario is in all possibility the poet who has had the greatest and most lasting influence in twentieth century Spanish literature. He has been praised as the prince of Castilian letters.

Reviews

[Kyriakos Sorokkou]

This book satisfied my two bookish obsessions.
Beautiful editions of books, and reading the world.
For four years now, I borrowed the idea from ​​an English blogger who during the 2012 Olympic Games in London, decided to read at least one book from every sovereign country that exists on this globe.

I started doing the same thing in the summer of 2016 when I bought several books for my birthday (a good excuse to buy books) from African writers: Mozambique, Kenya, Angola, South Africa and so on.

Previous international reads from 2019 were from Argentina (The Book of Imaginary Beings), North Korea (The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea) Belgium (Omega Minor), Italy (If on a Winter's Night a Traveller) and of course the Fantastic Stories of Ruben Dario from Nicaragua.
Most of us have no recollection of this country let alone writers or a book from this country.


That's what I like about this kind of reading, something I've been doing for four years, reading the world and opening windows to other continents, other countries, places, and cultures.

This year I read from Mexico (Like Water for Chocolate), Japan (The Restaurant of Love Regained), Jordan (Pillars of Salt) and Malaysia (The Garden of Evening Mists). I only loved the Mexican book, the others bored me, except maybe the one from Japan.

That's the main drawback when you 'read the world'.
You grab the book, once you see that you haven't read from that country, without caring whether you will be interested in the story or not, and so you fall into a swampy trap.

I suffered the same thing with Dario's book. Beautiful and well designed edition from Erato publications, but I don't even remember the titles of the stories. Easily forgotten. Forgettable.

I said again. When the stories in a collection are plenty and at the same time brief, they all become a mush in your mind and it slowly fades away.

Of the 206 pages in this edition, 33 are the author's biography (the only part I remember to date), 48 pages are Dario's three essays on Poe, and 18 pages are introductory and bibliographic data.
We are left with 110 pages of short stories. 10 short stories in 110 pages we have an average of 11 pages of short story. Reading time of 5 minutes, ten minutes tops.


Dario is said to be the father of Spanish-speaking modernism, influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and Verlaine, and in turn he influenced Borges and Cortazar. In other words, he is the raw material for the modernism and magical realism of Latin America.


But let's not forget that raw material doesn't always mean tasty. The raw material of a lava cake is cocoa, which when eaten on its own it fills your whole mouth with its bitter taste.
The same goes with literature too. No matter how important a writer is, it doesn't mean that you will like him, unless you are an elitist masochist. . .


More in Greek at βιβλιοαλχημείες

[Bab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dicen en la presentación que es que la producción poética de Rubén elipsó su prosa, y yo añadiría aquí que por algo sería. En estos cuentos destaca un lirismo notable, una prosa con gran carga poética en muchos momentos, más que unas tramas o un desarrollo / resolución de las mismas que estuviera a la altura. Se nota mucho la influencia de Poe (y se incluye un ensayo sobre su obra del propio Darío al final) en la estructura y el contenido de los cuentos: descripciones dramáticas y escabrosas de situaciones que se precipitan hacia su resolución en la última línea; pero, por desgracia, sin que las acompañen una idea de base ni una estructura con la fuerza que cabría esperar, por lo que se me quedan más bien en ejercicios de estilo. Es sorprendente que un prodigio de las letras de la altura tal vez inalcanzable de Rubén se quedara, cuando probaba otros campos colindantes con el de la poesía, en niveles tan poco destacables. (Igual que Poe, por otra parte, cuando se ponía a rimar...). No deja de sorprenderme esto de que cada cual haría mejor en dedicarse sólo a "lo suyo". :-/

[Caelliuss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Releí los cuentos fantásticos de Darío para el trabajo y me da mucha lástima no tener una copia en físico. Creo que es importante sacar más ejemplares y que el público conozca esta faceta de "Darío Gótico".

[Florencia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me gustaron muchos los cuentos y el aire de terror que tienen también.

[Nikos · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book of (very) short stories with plots centered on the metaphysical, though leaning heavily towards the religious - specifically catholic christianity. The writer seems somewhat familiar with the occult, mostly theosophy, evident throughout by short references (i tend to regard these as mere name-dropping to create an air of mystery, rather than anything thematically substantial) but mostly because of the introduction wherein the publishers inform us that Dario was deep into the occult. Well, if that, indeed, was the case, it’s hard to believe. Most of the stories involve christian morality and beliefs, condemning the occult, science and, even, man’s thirst for answers, as the ‘devil’s work’. Unless there is an ironic element to the stories and which due to translation problems that i’ll refer to shortly i can’t really discern, the viewpoint is conservative and superstitious.

Apart from plot / themes i can’t really commend much on the actual writing, the reason being the terrible Greek translation, if this language can even be called Greek. There are whole passages which are unreadable and sentences that make no sense. I don’t speak Spanish so could not say how faithful this translation is even if i had the original text at hand. What i do speak though, as a mother language, is Greek and i hate to inform the publishers the end result should be readable, correct Greek and not sentences that seem to be translated by google translate (no google back then, so i guess just sloppy work). I own the 1980’s edition and since i see here there is a new one out i certainly hope there’s been further editing, though in my opinion this translation shouldn’t have been published in the first place and, moreover, not be reprinted.

[Guille Olivieri · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
En general me gustaron mucho los cuentos. Mis favoritos: El Extraño Caso de la Señorita Amelia, La Larva y La Pesadilla de Honorio. Son muy divertidos y entretenidos. Algunos más inocentes que otros. Es un interesante lado de Rubén Darío.
- Recomendable para pasar el rato, libro corto y llevadero.
- Indispensable para los fans del terror.
- Perfecto para leer en Halloween 🎃

[Liberis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Borges πριν τον Borges, Poe μετά τον Poe, οι ιστορίες αυτές, προϊόν της μυστικιστικής φάσης του συγγραφέα, έχουν ενδιαφέρον και σε αφήνουν στο τέλος και με το στόμα ανοιχτό! Τις απόλαυσα όλες και δεν του το 'χα δεδομένου ότι το μεγάλο φόρτε του είναι η ποίηση!

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joder, iba con las expectativas altas y menudo chasco. Es terriblemente aburrido y sin ápice de iluminación. Cuentos de terror que están bien a nivel técnico pero transmiten lo mismo que el anuncio de YouTube que salta antes de un vídeo

[Botsis15 · Rating 1 out of 5]

By reading this book I tried to get aqcuainted with the writer.I did not enjoy reading it and I don't think I got a feeling of the writer's storytelling and voice.

[Elías Casella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una faceta poco conocida de Rubén Darío. Algunos de estos cuentos hoy serían predecibles o incluso amateurs, pero para la época estimo que serían muy originales.

[ashreadsifshecan · Rating 1 out of 5]

benlik değil yani ne diyim bilemiyorum, kitaplığımda var ve ince diye okudum. başta korku hikayesiydi, sonra din propagandası mı tersi mi oldu bilmiyorum bile. yazar yüzler ve kafalara takıntılı.

[Vasil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Голям късмет, че се записах в Столична библиотека. Испанската им читалня е отлично заредена и разполага с всевъзможни екземпляри на европеѝски и на латиноамерикански автори.

Реших да почна с последните. В гимназията сме говорили доста за Рубен Дарио, но за поезията му. Фантастичните му разкази се оказаха изненадващо интересни и то по онзи начин, по коѝто само литературата на една много чужда култура, сякаш от друг свят, би могла да бъде. Все пак, всяка една от поместените истории е до голяма степен човешка. В сборника са събрани истории с наѝ-различни теми: за чудеса, демони, духове, вампири.

Хубава колекция, чете се лесно и бързо, но с нищо не блести над средното ниво. Препоръчвам за любители на прото-фантастиката, понеже повече се доближава до теософията, отколкото до научната фантастика.