Spanish Short Stories 1 / Cuentos hispánicos 1

by Jean Franco (Editor), Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez

Excellent reading in either Spanish or English, the eight short stories in this collection by authors including Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Camilo José Cela have been chosen for their readability and literary merit. Seven are from Spanish America, only one from Spain, an unsurprising ratio considering there are no less than nineteen Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas, and that the short story is an extremely popular form among authors there. This selection also, therefore, gives the reader an insight into the differences between the literary cultures. Printed approximately in order of difficulty, the stories are accompanied by parallel English translations and notes on the text.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Short Stories, Fiction

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Jack Oberman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good read if your only goal is to develop in Spanish.
The selection of stories was incredibly dull - the collector explained at the beginning that they aimed to avoid the slew of regionalist stories from South America that depict it as primitive and only focus on “man vs jungle”. Instead the author focused on urban themes, although in my opinion the collection seems to focus on the mundane. Some of the more boring short stories I’ve ever read.
Translation seems solid with good comments explaining their translation choices.

[Gemma Borrás Lopez-Malla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las historias son, como se indica en el texto cortas pero no son fáciles de leer, sobre todo para un estudiante de español. El lenguaje es antiguo y elaborado, las historias también cuentan con metáforas, frases hechas y refranes por lo que sólo los estudiantes más avanzados podrán entenderlas.
Si por el contrario eres nativo en español, las historias son en general agradables y entretenidas, me esperaba más de estos reconocidos autores pero me alegro de haberlo leído.

En cuanto a las traducciones en inglés, hay que tener en cuenta que en el propio libro estas son descritas como una herramienta de comprensión. Por lo que leer el libro únicamente a través de sus traducciones no tiene sentido literario. Los textos en inglés son más bien copias literales del español y difíciles de seguir, sin embargo pueden ser útiles para sustituir el uso de diccionarios.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited when I saw "Spanish Short Stories 1" edited by Jean Franco. This collection of short stories is side-by-side Spanish and English. I figured it could be benenficial when teaching Spanish ELL students. With that hope and expectation I read the translated English versions of the stories. This is a rich collection that contains stories by many of the great Hispanic writers such as Borges, Garcia Marquz, and Moreno. I was disappointed though as I read through the stories though. They were not interesting stories. Specifically in the case of Borges and Garcia Marquez both writers have fascinating stories that could have been included. I was quite disappointed with the story selection.

[C.]

I give up. These translations are so bad it's difficult to follow the storyline. I didn't realise that was possible.

[Jason Blean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of graphic detail and literary prose, the stories are told with some story-telling aplomb and typical Spanish expressiveness but few of the tales can be said to be heart-warming. Au contraire! Pretty heavy-going stuff in many places and not just as I was using this primarily as a translator's resource for building wordlists in English and Spanish... Following the plot was somewhat tedious in some cases (e.g. "The Pigeon" and "Talpa"), and it didn't always feel like "vale la pena". However, to be enjoyed more fully perhaps these tales should be read entirely in one language.

[Tim Moran · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories can be difficult for an intermediate reader. I was able to get through the first three or 3 without consulting the English version. But this was much mor difficult to with the later stories. Still very rewarding. The relatively straightforward but rich Emma Nunz remains my favorite. But all of them disappointed lay great artistry.

[Caitlin Vaille · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual story ratings:

Emma Zunz: 4.5 stars
The Budget: 3.5 stars
The Cavalry Colonel: 3 stars
Isabel's Soliloquy: 3 stars
Welcome, Bob: 4 stars
The Romería: 2 stars
The Pigeon: 1 star
Talpa: 3.5 stars

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this book sometime during my last summer in Spain (2014), having read it in preparation for returning to that beautiful country.

The book includes the following short stories in their Spanish original with English translation, with my ratings out of five in parentheses:
Emma Zunz by Jorge Luis Borges, Translated by Donald A. Yates (4)
The Budget by Mario Benedetti, Trans. by Gerald Brown (4)
The Cavalry Colonel by H.A. Murena, Trans. by Gordon Brotherston (3)
Isabel's Soliloquy: Watching the Rain in Macondo, Trans. by Richard Southern (3)
Welcome, Bob by Juan Carlos Onetti, Trans. by Donald L. Shaw (1)
The Romeria by Camilo Jose Cela, Trans. by Gordon Brotherston (4)
The Pigeon by Carlos Martinez Moreno, Trans. by Giovanni Pontiero (2)
Talpa by Juan Rulfo, Trans. by J.A. Chapman (2)

See updates for notes on individual stories.

[Rodrigo d'Orey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this bool almost two years ago now and felt that most stories were very good and written in really tough Spanish. Obviously the level of difficulty kind of increased with every new story that even for me (Portuguese speaker) found it tough to follow at parts but that also may have to do with (all? or) most of stories being of Latin America origin.

Quoting from the book:

"In Monologo de Isabel (Isabel's Soliloquy) the author shows with great profundity how the continue and heavy rain upsets the characters until their sense or notion of time and space breaks down.

In Talpa the characters are full of superstitions, fatalism and cruelty. Mexican setting but universal emotions & passions".

[Peter N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't love every story in the collection, but some were extremely good. Some people have complained about the translations but I only noticed the Cela one to be particularly awful - all the others serve their purpose of supporting reading in Spanish. I will definitely be chasing up some more work by Juan Rulfo, Juan Carlos Onetti and Carlos Martínez Moreno...

[DilanAc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice choice of stories from very different authors.

My favorite is Talpa by Juan Rulfo. If you can read Spanish, the language is really worth it. "Y arriba de esta tierra estaba el ciel vacio, sin nubes, solo el polvo; pero el polvo no da ninguna sombra." is just one example of a beautiful sentence.