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Celestina (Penguin Classics) Paperback – December 29, 2009

by Fernando de Rojas (Author), Peter Bush (Translator, Afterword), Juan Goytisolo (Introduction)

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The racy and irreverent Spanish tragicomedy that is considered the first European novel-in a spirited new translation

A Spanish Romeo and Juliet, Celestina was published in 1499 and became Spain's first-ever bestseller. Readers thrilled to the salty character of Celestina and her world of prostitutes and black magic even as they mourned the fate of Calisto and Melibea, the young lovers she unites using her wiles as a seller of perfumes and potions. Fernando de Rojas's exhilarating mix of street wit, obscenity, and cultured rhetoric mark Celestina as a masterpiece: an original, explosive, genre-defying work that paved the way for the picaresque novel and for Cervantes.

Celestina (Penguin Classics)

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Product Details

Series: Penguin Classics
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Penguin Classics; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143106090
ISBN-13: 978-0143106098
Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #449,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #243 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > European > Spanish & Portuguese
- #4581 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Humor & Satire > Humorous
- #9679 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

What a treasure!

By Amazon Crazy on February 17, 2010

Format: Paperback

CELESTINA is quite a treasure. To think that it took all these years of studying literature for me to finally be introduced to a beginning of such monumental influence. The actual read is easy and deceptively benign until you start thinking about the church in Spain and Europe in the late 1400s and the courage that Rojas must have had to write this novel and the publisher to publish it. People were burned at the stake for less. Then, to realize that such greats as the great Cervantes came AFTER this and that its influence gave encouragement to such as Borges, Marques, and so on is amazing. I hope that the Penquin blog, which will begin soon, will further enlighten me about this charming text.

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

Old Celly

By A Certain Bibliophile on October 23, 2011

Format: Paperback

This review may contain spoilers.

"Celestina" is one of those literary peculiarities that you might not have had the pleasure to be introduced to if you had not taken a course in Spanish literature. I first ran across the title in the Dedalus European Classics series, which has a lot of similarly obscure and wonderful things, including Georges Rodenbach and Gustav Meyrink. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that a more mainstream publisher like Penguin had the same translation, by Peter Bush.

Celestina, the local procuress and alchemic mage, makes a living off of restoring the hymens of previously deflowered young girls so that they may be marriageable again. The rich noble Calisto has fallen in love with Melibea, yet it is wholly unrequited. He enlists Celestina to fix this, and through some crafty manipulation she eventually succeeds. Two of Calisto's servants, Parmeno and Sempronio, promise to offer their own services to Celestina if she will split Calisto's payment three ways. Parmeno starts out being honest, telling Calisto that Celestina is nothing but a money-hungry crook, but eventually gives up when he sees how hopelessly in love Calisto really is. Once Celestina refuses to pay them, everything starts to go horribly, horribly downhill. What read for the first two-thirds as a bawdy comedy turns into a bloodbath on par with "Hamlet." The label tragicomedy seems especially appropriate here, having equal measures of both.

The plot is fast-paced and easy to follow. It is divided into twenty-one short, heavily dialogue-driven chapters that read very much like a play (even though it was apparently never mean to be staged). Throughout, the best advice is given through numbing, stultifying bromides, and this is especially true of Celestina.Read more ›

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Celestina

By Steven Davis on April 9, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition

Celestina is described by its author as a "tragicomedy." It is indeed a mixture of tragedy, comedy, buffoonery, folk wisdom and social satire--much like Don Quixote, which it preceded by more than a century. The novel is told almost entirely in dialogue, and is often published in the form of a play.

The story begins with a young Spanish gentleman named Calisto who falls madly in love with Melibea, the sheltered daughter of one of the town's leading citizens. Calisto enlists the help of two of his servants, Sempronio and Pármeno, in finding a way for him to meet Melibea and tell her of his love for her. They, in turn, contact Celestina, madame of the local brothel, whose many talents include witchcraft, matchmaking, the concocting of potions, and the repairing of maidenheads. Sempronio gets Celestina to agree to give him a share of whatever reward she can squeeze out of Calisto. It turns out that Celestina's job is a piece of cake, for Melibea is as much in love with Calisto as he is with her.

But the love of Calisto and Melibea, like that of Romeo and Juliet, comes to a bad end. The author (who was a university student in his 20s when he wrote Celestina), tells us that his work is a cautionary tale on the evils of romantic love. But I suspect this was said somewhat tongue in cheek. Greed is actually the passion at the root of the novel's tragic outcome.

While the beautiful people of the upper classes fall victims to their passion, it is the servants and prostitutes--spouting proverb after proverb--who prove themselves wiser and more clever. There is a clear message of egalitarianism in the novel. As one prostitute says, "We're all children of Adam and Eve, after all.Read more ›

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excellent literature

By maryann phillips on July 25, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Recommended by a ver good Columbian friend. Loved it!

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Five Stars

By MOHSIN KAZMI on November 30, 2014

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

nice like it thnx

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