Exemplary Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

[This is a review of the Oxford edition. While it does not include all of Cervantes' exemplary stories, I have given it five stars based on the material it does contain.]For a self-styled Don Quixote, it has certainly taken me a long time to review a book by Cervantes. I have chosen his _Exemplary Stories_ because they are so incredibly underrated. Everyone reads _Don Quixote_; no one reads _The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda_, which the author considered to be his masterpiece. The "novelas ejemplares" are somewhere in the middle. The truth about this collection is that you will find everything in it: verisimilitude, serendipity, grotesquerie, prejudice, humor, violence, adventure, absurdism, romance, and exquisite symbolism. It is futile and unfair to compare the novelas with _Don Quixote_. I will say, however, that I read both books with immense pleasure.First, a word about the content. This edition, published by Oxford, does not include the full text of Cervantes' _Novelas ejemplares_; neither does the Penguin edition of the same title. The original collection consists of 12 stories, of which the Penguin edition includes 6, and the Oxford (under consideration here) 8. Some editions of Cervantes' collected works also include a thirteenth story, "La tía fingida" (roughly, "The Fake Aunt"), a "novela" that was not deemed "ejemplar" enough to appear with the others. See the last paragraph of this review for a comparison of the Oxford, the Penguin, and the free Kindle versions of the _Exemplary Stories_.In his preface, after providing an exquisite self-portrait, Cervantes claims that he was the first to write in Spanish the type of tales known as “novelas,” though Spaniards had known this genre in translation (most notably from the Italian of Boccaccio, whose _Decameron_ was completed in 1353). Cervantes’ _Exemplary novels_ were published in 1613. Is it true that it took Spaniards more than two centuries to produce “novelas”? Of course not. At the same time, many Spanish classics that came before _Don Quixote_ have strikingly original structures. _La Celestina_ (1499) is written in dramatic form; _Lazarillo de Tormes_ (1554) is an episodic first-person narrative. Both could be considered novels, and both are groundbreaking in theme and structure. But _Lazarillo_ is anonymous, an so was _Celestina_ for many years, until it was attributed to Fernando de Rojas, and most importantly, look at the view of Spain these texts convey… There are political reasons why Cervantes is considered to be the Great Spanish Author. He was certainly not the first.Regarding the genre, I do not like to call the _Novelas ejemplares_ “novellas” with two Ls. Using this term would be misleading, as most of Cervantes’ tales are not, strictly speaking, what we have come to know as novellas. They are not, in other words, like _Heart of Darkness_, like _Bartleby the Scrivener_, or like _The Metamorphosis_. This has nothing to do with the time of publication; it has to do with structure. Structurally, what Cervantes calls “novela” is simply a long short story. Think Hoffman’s tales. Amazingly, however, there are a couple of the “novelas ejemplares” that come quite close to what we refer to as novellas. Those are the most interesting in the collection, and I indicate them with the symbol (#) below, in my brief comments about each of the stories included in this volume. These are the contents of the Oxford edition:* The Little Gypsy Girl: one of the most famous stories included revolves around Preciosa, a fifteen-year-old gypsy girl. She is beautiful and modest, a perfect woman. When a man falls in love with her, she asks him, as a test, to live as a gypsy for two years. Complications arise when the man is accused of stealing by a girl who wants to marry him. This story is not realistic at all: serendipity plays a large role. One of the points it wants to make is that one should never judge a book by its cover. The idea of an assumed identity, the change of name, is something that recurs in the collection.* Rinconete and Cortadillo: another beloved story, this one falls into the picaresque subgenre. It is surprisingly modern. Strictly speaking, there is no plot: it simply portrays the meeting of a society of criminals. Rincón and Cortado, two teenagers, meet on the road. They realize they have something in common, they are both thieves, and so they become friends. Fate takes them to a town where thieves work together, under the leader Monipodio, a “godfather” type of figure. This is a realist novela with marginal characters. Cervantes reveals an underworld and lets his characters speak for themselves, in their argot. The ending suggests this may have been an introduction to characters Cervantes planned to use again. I was reminded of Fagin and his band of thieves in _Oliver Twist_. #* The Glass Graduate: one of the most enigmatic stories, which has stood the test of time. I read it as a parable. It concerns a boy who is adopted by two students. He is taken to Salamanca, where he eventually studies, and later becomes a soldier, traveling all over Europe. One day, a young woman falls in love with him, and as he will not have her, she puts a spell on him. He falls ill, and when he recovers his strength he is convinced that he is made of glass. The important part is what comes after, as society reacts to this strange “glass man.” #* The Jealous Old Man from Extremadura: the prodigal Carrizales goes to America and comes back with a fortune when he is almost 70 years old. He is so jealous he determines never to marry, but one day he sees a very young girl, Leonora, and cannot help but ask her parents for her hand. He builds a fortress to guard her, and all is well until a young musician shows up… Will the fortress be stronger than the human will to sin? An excellent story.* The Illustrious Kitchen Maid: two young men decide to work at the tuna harvest. On the way there, they stop at an inn, where one of them falls in love with a beautiful young woman. They end up staying at the place, one of them for love, the other to accompany his friend. The story relates their adventures and misadventures at the inn. Two morals here are: “nada es lo que parece” (nothing is what it seems), and “no hay mal que por bien no venga” (there’s good behind every misfortune”). A very good story with humorous complications.* The Power of Blood: set in Toledo, where a rich young man abducts a girl and rapes her while she is unconscious. Due to the brutal subject matter and the awful mores/politics, this story is rarely included in anthologies. The resolution, which is shocking to us twenty-first century readers, would not have struck Cervantes’ contemporaries as so scandalous. Serendipity plays an important role in this story too. Willing suspension of disbelief is required.* The Deceitful Marriage: a delightful story of a “burlador burlado” (a trickster who is tricked). Peralta meets the soldier Campuzano as the latter is leaving the hospital. They go to Peralta’s place, where Campuzano tells his story. He met a lady, Estefanía, and when he saw her house and wealth (without having seen her face, which was covered by a veil) he decided to marry her. Bad idea… The story introduces the following novela.* The Dialogue of the Dogs: perhaps the most famous tale in the book, this is a hilarious, grotesque dialogue between two dogs, which Campuzano, from the previous story, allegedly overheard while he was convalescing at the hospital. The dogs are a comic duo. They cannot help making cynical comments. What we get is a glorious example of proto-absurdism, a “dog’s-eye view” of the human condition. Isn’t this also an early instance of magic realism? The ending is appropriately ambiguous. #This volume gives you two thirds of Cervantes' book, and the most important tales. The missing stories are: "The Lady Cornelia," "The Generous Lover," "The Spanish-English Lady," and "The Two Damsels." By way of comparison, the edition published by Penguin does not include "The Illustrious Kitchen Maid" and "The Power of Blood," and most importantly, it is also missing Cervantes' prologue. The free Kindle version is an 1881 translation by Walter K. Kelly, and includes all of the stories. Please see my review of the Kindle version for comments on all of the stories. I plan to review the Penguin edition soon.The translation by Leslie Lipson is quite good. The only significant change she has made to the text is to break up some of Cervantes’ longer sentences. Her introduction touches upon the author’s life and work, the critical reception through the years, and the role of the reader when faced with this ambiguous, often subtly satirical work. She also provides brief illuminating commentaries on each of the stories included in the volume. Her explanatory notes are very helpful and not excessive.My next Cervantes will be _The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda_.Thanks for reading, and enjoy the book!

I've never read Don Quixote. I didn't read this in Spanish. I'm just a guy who likes short stories, and this was a great book to read on a recent jaunt through Spain. Some of the romantic ones felt a bit too similar, but now I'm familiar with the genre, so I chalk that up as a win. I loved the picaresque tales (think Huck Finn if you're not familiar with a "picaro"), but The Jealous Old Man has stuck with me more than the others. Anyway, it's not long, and the great thing about short stories is that you can pick up the book two years later and start right where you left off!

Love Cervantes. This was for my dad, who’s a big reader as well. He’d sent me an email last night that he’d finished it.

The cover says it is Exemplary Stories by Cervantes, but when you open the book the pages were assembled backward, and it is instead a copy of Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma? Extremely odd.

Excellent complication of material. I can't comment on quality of translation. The stories are fascinating.

Miguel Cervantes collection of short stories translated by Lesley Lipson are well recommended. The stories are exemplary in the sense that they are meant to be a good example for the reader as well as edifying and educational though I suspect Cervantes, a mischievous writer if there ever was one, has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he named them.The stories are not quite as brilliant as  Don Quixote ; though they are earthy, lively, bawdy and deal with the day to day reality of the times as well as such fantastic themes as the two ruminative canines of the last story in the collection "The Dialogue of the Dogs". Mostly they are funny: ha-ha and peculiar, and leave a vivid impression after reading reminiscent of  Tales from the Thousand and One Nights . If you like your fiction slightly strange or are a fan of Cervantes classic Don Quioxte you will enjoy this.

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) writes tellingly about 'every day folk'. When reading these short stories it's difficult not to get the impression that he was fascinated by the foibles of his fellow humans. His characters emerge from the pages causing the reader to exclaim:' I know someone just like that!' Human nature hasn't changed much, if at all, since these tales were first composed. Although his tales certainly ramble round a bit, it's the kind of rambling that endears itself to the reader. Cervantes stole a march on the learned scholars who write about the evolution of the short story or the novel: he had already developed them to perfection. I think one can also safely say that his experience of the ups and downs of life had served to develop his sense of humour.The book contains eight of Cervantes' short stories: The Little Gipsy Girl; Rinconnete and Cortadillo; The Glass Graduate; The Power of Blood; The Jealous Old Man from Extremadura; The Illustrious Kitchen Maid; The Deceitful Marriage and The Dialogue of the Dogs. Cervantes prefaces these eight yarns with a short prologue. The stories have been translated byLesley Lipson who also provides a helpful introduction and notes on both text and translation. This edition also includes a bibliography and a chronology of Cervantes life. I'll be surprised if other readers will not exclaim as I do when reading these yarns by Cervantes: 'I know someone just like that!' Did someone say that Cervantes is 'the father of the modern style short story'? I wouldn't disagree with that, although it all depends on what is meant by 'modern'. However, I think it even better to say that his tales are timeless. I'm so pleased I decided to buy this copy of Cervantes' short stories, which I thoroughly enjoyed and will never tire of reading.

what delightful stories!

I am unable to comment on this item because the book was a present for someone else though I do understand that they liked it.

Miguel Cervantes collection of short stories translated by Lesley Lipson are well recommended. The stories are exemplary in the sense that they are meant to be a good example for the reader as well as edifying and educational though I suspect Cervantes, a mischievous writer if there ever was one, has his tongue firmly in his cheek when he named them.The stories are not quite as brilliant as  Don Quixote ; though they are earthy, lively, bawdy and deal with the day to day reality of the times as well as such fantastic themes as the two ruminative canines of the last story in the collection "The Dialogue of the Dogs". Mostly they are funny: ha-ha and peculiar, and leave a vivid impression after reading reminiscent of  Tales from the Thousand and One Nights . If you like your fiction slightly strange or are a fan of Cervantes classic Don Quioxte you will enjoy this. Don QuixoteTales from the Thousand and One Nights