Exemplary Stories

Apr 20, 2025 9:01 PM

Author:Miguel Cervantes

Exemplary Stories

Composed throughout Cervantes's writing life and mentioned in Don Quixote, his Exemplary Stories are among the first and finest Spanish short stories: ranging from traditional tales of love to incisive moral fables. In The Little Gipsy Girl, an Italianate romance, the nomadic life is idealised through a love affair between the beautiful Preciosa and a nobleman who agrees to live as a gipsy to win her heart. Elsewhere, the intricacies of love are further explored in tales such as The Jealous Extremaduran, while the picaresque Rinconette and Cortadillo, depicting the friendship between a card-sharper and a pickpocket, presents a very different insight into the lower classes of seventeenth-century Spain. Widely regarded as one of Cervantes's greatest stories, The Dogs' Colloquy brilliantly captures Spanish conversation and society in its depiction of a discussion between two dogs mysteriously granted the gift of speech.

Reviews

Adam Haslett is a wonderful rarity. You're likely not only to love his stories but to feel stronger for having read them

—— Jonathan Franzen, author of 'The Corrections'

Adam Haslett possesses the rare ability to combine powerful narrative with sensitive and perceptive observations of people and places. You Are Not a Stranger Here is a brilliant beginning to a literary career

—— Barry Unsworth

Adam Haslett's tone is one of delicate, understated heartache... He never lets the reader forget that he is shining an unflinching light on those types of human suffering that cannot be cured, only endured

—— Sunday Times

Enormously moving... Haslett's writing is harrowing, morbidly funny and deeply erotic

—— Independent on Sunday

Adam Haslett arrives from out of nowhere sounding like a master

—— Jay McInerney

A profound knowledge of the cultures of Mittel-europa, of the literatures of France, the United States and Britain translated into Buenos Aires vernacular, gives Cozarinsky's narratives a fiery intellectual strength and a powerful originality

—— Alberto Manguel

Previous Article：Sketches by Boz Next Article：The Fox, The Captain's Doll, The Ladybird

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.