Customer Reviews

Eight Interludes (Everyman Paperback Classics)

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This was an excellent book. Not only did it contain the plays, but also several sections of biographical information on the author and notes to aid in the understanding of the plays. Some of the themes in the plays are antiquated, but make for an interesting study of Spain during the earlier centuries. The plays themselves were well written and well translated. The social satire included it each one made for a comical and interesting read. I recommend this book for people who have an interest in historical drama.

For those who only know Cervantes from "Don Quixote", these "Interludes" provide a nice change of pace and another side of his writings that's not so well known today. As the foreword of the book points out, these very short plays, almost "playlets", work often with stock characters and plot cliches of the time. The themes are rather subtle, again as noted in the foreword, for those who want to read them carefully.

I have one modest comment about the translation per se, namely that it feels rather strange now, in 2011, to see the plays translated mostly without Spanish names, where English "names" with a roughly equivalent meaning are used. To me, it robs the Spanish "flavor" not to use the original Spanish names for many of the characters. I'll admit that this is the only translation of these works that I've seen, and perhaps other versions do restore the original Spanish names, if obviously with all the dialogue translated.

This book was sold as brand new. I am fifty years old and have been handling books long enough to recognize when something is brand new or simply in good condition. I should have purchased one of the copies I saw advertised as used and saved a few bucks. Oh well. At least it was delivered in a timely manner, as promised.