Three-Cornered Hat & Captain Poison / El sombrero de tres picos & El Capitán Veneno

by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, Stanley Appelbaum

Rooted in the medieval ballad tradition and recounted to the author by a Spanish goatherd, The Three-Cornered Hat relates a madcap series of romantic misadventures. The basis of Manuel de Falla's popular ballet of the same name, it appears here with Captain Poison, a witty "taming-of-the-shrew" tale. Original Spanish with English translation.

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Ariza was a 19th century Spanish novelist, author of the novel El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat, 1874). The story is an adaptation of a popular tradition and provides a lively picture of village life in Alarcón's native region of Andalusia. It was the basis for Hugo Wolf's opera Der Corregidor (1897) and Manuel de Falla's ballet The Three-Cornered Hat (1919).
Alarcón wrote another popular short novel, El capitán Veneno ('Captain Poison', 1881). He produced four other full-length novels. One of these novels, El escándalo ('The Scandal', 1875), became noted for its keen psychological insights. Alarcón also wrote three travel books and many short stories and essays.
Alarcón was born in Guadix, near Granada. In 1859, he served in a Spanish military operation in Morocco. He gained his first literary recognition with A Witness' Diary of the African War (1859-1860), a patriotic account of the campaign.

Reviews

[Julian Meynell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read this edition, but instead read a book that has these two stories and three short stories. Alarcon is an interesting author. He is almost great but somehow isn't. His style is very light and he has a love of people despite their foibles. His books are filled with a wistfulness for a past that he can see is deeply flawed and their are canny and clever bits of writing. For instance, at one point while describing the period in which The Three-Cornered Hat is set he refers to "picturesque inequality before the law", which is great writing.

His style is a knowing 19th century version of 18th century writing, which is interesting, but in the end he lacks edge, or at least waters down his writing and that stops him from moving into a different kind of league writing.

[Rafael Diánez · Rating 4 out of 5]

En este caso hablo específicamente de "El sombrero de tres picos".
Me ha resultado un libro fácil de leer y entretenido, aunque tampoco lo considero trascendental. No obstante, no se puede negar que la moraleja es interesante.
Por otro lado, los personajes son bastante variados, lo cual es el pilar en el que se apoya esta historia. El hecho de que ningún personaje se parezca mínimamente a algún otro es lo que más me ha gustado.
Dicho esto, mi nota para este libro sería un 3'75/5.

[Robin Cunninghame Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Realmente disfruté El Sombrero de Tres Picos, una obra clásica contada como novela corta, pero El Capitán Veneno me pareció un poco turgente y demasiado predecible.

[Javier Flowers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Los dos relatos o novelas cortas son de Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. La edición es de Jesús Rubio.
Las novelas son entretenidas pero lo son más aún leyendo el prólogo de Jesús. ¿De qué manera acabó Austral encargando la edición de este libro a este profesor que pone por los suelos al bueno de Pedro? No lo sabemos pero el resultado es muy divertido para el lector. No así para los descendientes del granadino