Customer Reviews

La familia de Pascual Duarte (Spanish Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read this book several times and make new discoveries every time I read it. This haunting, shocking novel was published shortly after the Spanish Civil War and reflects the atmosphere of tension, horror, fear and disapointment felt by Spain at that time. The graphic and inhumane actions of the protagonist reveal a deeper meaning to the novel and it must be read carefully.

Un interesante acercamiento a los eternos opuestos. Es el bien algo absoluto? y el mal?. Es Pascual Duarte el verdugo o es la víctima?
Es un libro para ser leído al menos dos veces, la primera para disfrutarlo y la segunda o subsecuentes para ser analizado. Así que, si tu intención es el disfrute, aquí tienes algo para disfrutar. Si te interesa el análisis literario, psicológico o sociológico, también lo encuentras en esta obra de Don Camilo.

A traves de un personaje perseguido por su propio destino, Cela hace un recuento de la miseria de la España del tercer mundo creado por la sangrienta guerra civil española. Este personaje, a pesar de tener poca educación, cuenta su vida desde la carcel en la que estuvo después de cometer crimenes por accidente. Es una historia bien relatada, entretenida, triste, y realista. Es digna de leer.

Es una novela triste, pero realista. Nos llena de sentimientos contradictorios, pues el protagonista nos indigna y al mismo tiempo nos hace sentir compasion por el.
Recomiendo que al leer el libro, se pregunten si ustedes lo condenarian o lo perdonarian.
Cela es un maestro de la prosa.

While we were in Spain in January 2002, Camilo Jose Cela, a Spanish nobel prize winner in 1989, died at the age of 85. As a tribute, I re-read this, one of his most famous books, written during a time when Spain was reading sweet lovely "lyrical" books (in the 40s). Its honesty and brutality was called "Tremendismo" (tremendous-ism, if you will).

The Family of Pascual Duarte is about the life of a dirt poor man from Extremadura and is filled with the absolute realities of the primitive, angry, vulgar nature of the poor in Spain during Franco's reign. Much of Cela's work, in fact, was banned by the Franco government and for good reason - as it portrays a Spain that was not of the tourist brochures. This book has been called the most famous Spanish novel since Don Quixote (which was written 400 years before it!) and has been translated more than any other Spanish novel. If you can read Spanish, you must do so since Cela's prose is unlike any other.

I had initially written a review in my very inadequate español, but decided I should spare myself the shame and write it in English until I improve, anyway, onto the story.

Pascual Duarte is a man whose life has been marked by a series of unfortunate incidents which he blames on fate/God that leads him to eventually commit matricide as well as a series of other crimes.

The novel is written as the recollections of the man while he is in prison, keeping this diary in which he pours his thoughts about his life and what made him the man he was. I saw in Pascual, a man like any other whose life could have gone a different way had he made better decisions in life.

This isn't a very inspiring story so don't expect to come out of this short book with a sense of having gone through the storm and come out of it a better person - Think "Perfect Storm" -. This is definitely not one of those books you want to be reading on a rainy day.

If you can stomach pain, sorrow and disappointment, then I would recommend this story to you. It is also interesting as a study of the psychology of a killer.

PS: For those people who are trying to learn Spanish, an excellent English translation (to me at least) is by Anthony Kerrigan. ISBN: 0316134317

This edition of the classic novel written in post-Civil War Spain is intended for students who have mastered basic vocabulary. The novel is edited so that the lines of text are numbered. At the end of the novel are discussion questions for each chapter and a few questions that pertain to the work as a whole. The book concludes with a large section of vocabulary.

Este clásico novelo escrito en la poste-Guerra civil España es pensado para estudiantes que han dominado el vocabulario básico. La novela es redactada para que las líneas de texto sean numeradas. La novela es seguida la discusión las preguntas para cada capítulo y unas pocas preguntas que pertenecen al trabajo en total. El libro concluye con una sección grande del vocabulario.

Yo tuve que leer este libro para una clase de literatura espanola y me gusto mucho. Uno puede ver las condiciones de la gente en Espana durante esa epoca a traves de la vida de Pascual. Ademas es un buen libro y lo recomiendo a todos que tienen interes en la literatura y la cultura.

Pascual Duarte, a condemned prisoner, has been busy writing the story of his life. An engaging story, told politely, with frequent apologies for its occasional "bad" words, as it moves from one disastrous occurrence to another. The prisoner grows up in poverty, it's true, but he also makes a series of bad decisions, carried away by obsessive thoughts and unruly emotions. The glass is always half empty for Pascual Duarte, but then he spills what is left. As his life goes rapidly downhill, Pascual remembers only a few, fleeting days of happiness.

The story is told simply, pictorially, with vivid descriptions of places, rooms, streets, the Spanish countryside, people, animals, and one horrific event after another. I won't tell you the plot--no need to--for this is a ahort book and you already know how it ends. Read it. I recommend Pascual Duarte highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

This is a book that reflects the crude reality of rural Spain in Franco's time. It is full of human power and rich in social insight. Cela writes with high detail, but is still capable of maintaining simplicity. This is a quick delightful read.