Cuentos preferidos. An Anthology of 19th-century Spanish Very Short Stories (review)

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Reviewed by: Cuentos preferidos. An Anthology of 19th-century Spanish Very Short Stories Stephen Miller Swanson, Peter, ed. Cuentos preferidos. An Anthology of 19th-century Spanish Very Short Stories. Newark, DE: Cervantes & Co., 2011. Pp. 111. ISBN 978-1-58977-086-7. Having used in the past other volumes of the publisher’s Spanish Classics series, I was prepared for a well-edited volume that could be used in a range of Spanish courses. The emphasis on “very short stories” alerted me to its being designed for use in intermediate college courses, or second year high school classes. Our contemporary pedagogic practice in this visual age counsels that readings in target languages should not be too long. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant surprise to see that the nine story titles listed in the Table of Contents (6) indicated that the volume could also find uses as a text in a college introduction to literature course, as well as in the second half of a Peninsular survey sequence. Emilia Pardo Bazán’s “El fondo del alma” (13–17) and much-anthologized “Las medias rojas” (19–22) constitute the first of editor Swanson’s not especially compelling four thematic divisions: “Primer paso: Love and Distant Destination.” Next comes “Segundo paso: Health and Eternal Life,” which contains “En la droguería” (27–32) and “El pecado original” (33–39) by Leopoldo Alas “Clarín.” Then follows “Tercer paso: Jocularity, Sweet Justice and Guilt,” with three stories by Armando Palacio Valdés: “El crimen de la calle de la Perseguida” (45–51), “Sociedad primitiva” (53–57), and “Un testigo de cargo” (59–62). Finally, there is “Cuarto paso: Intrigue and Division,” which presents two stories by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez: “La barca abandonada” (67–74) and “La pared” (75–79). The volume also includes: two-page, English-language introductions to the life and work of each writer; a “Spanish–English Glossary” (81–111); and footnotes in English designed to offer cultural contextualization for references in the stories, as well as clarifications of different points of vocabulary and idiomatic phrases. To this description of the collection under review must be added that this is not really a volume of nineteenth-century Spanish stories. The four authors anthologized were born in the second half of the century, between 1851 and 1867. Moreover, while Alas died in 1901, Pardo Bazán died in 1921, Blasco Ibáñez in 1928, and Palacio Valdés in 1938; and, the majority of the stories in this volume were first published between1890 and 1910. In this context, it should be noted that this collection of decentered texts—as respects the nineteenth century—is further disoriented by its wrap-around, back-spine-front cover illustration. It is a panoramic photograph of Oviedo, the city most associated with Alas and Palacio Valdés. However, it is not of nineteenth-century Oviedo, but of today’s city wherein modern constructions nearly obliterate the appearance of the city known to Alas and Palacio Valdés. There are more serious problems with Cuentos preferidos. Fundamental in these pedagogic editions is sound proof-reading. But this volume is marred by poor editing and outright errors in the notes. Examples of typos are: “La ama joven” instead of “La dama joven” (12); “Pardo Bazán (1853–1938)” instead of “Pardo Bazán (1851–1921)” (26); “de eso” instead of “de uso” [End Page 361] (29); “los ayores tormentos” instead of “los mayores tormentos” (35); “ontogéncia” instead of “ontogénica” (37); “began to his” instead of “began his” (43); “The two stories presented here” instead of “The three stories presented here” (44); “La barraca” instead of “La barraca ” and “to evenings” instead of “two evenings” (65); “La Pared” instead of “La pared” (75); etc. More important are mistakes in the marginal vocabulary notations that appear to the left of the text, and the mistakes in the footnotes touching on vocabulary and cultural notes. Representative of the many glaring errors of this sort, the first and second paragraphs of “La barca abandonada” will suffice. The first words of the story are: “Era la playa de Torresalinas,” with the place name being footnoted. This note says: “Torresalinas is on...