I. Capítulo 1
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A novel of envy and hatred for B2
Abel Sánchez Abel Sánchez
Miguel de Unamuno, 1917
Miguel de Unamuno’s novel from the 1917 edition (Renacimiento), a complete original, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is B2: about 29,000 words and 12 words per sentence on average. 38 short chapters about the doctor Joaquín Monegro, who cannot forgive the easy success of his lifelong friend, the painter Abel Sánchez; scenes and dialogue carry the story, and the quoted pages of Joaquín’s Confesión are the most abstract.
- B2
- 29 047 words
- 5-8 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the short sentences will feel friendly, but the abstract words of Joaquín’s Confesión and old forms like casóse, dedicóse and fué will need a dictionary.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: the plot moves in short sentences and dialogue, and only the quoted pages of the Confesión, with their vocabulary of envy, hatred and conscience, call for slower reading and translating single words.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novel reads freely; what is left is the bookish abstract vocabulary and the old spellings of 1917, such as fué and cojido.
Start readingThe average sentence has 12 words, because Unamuno writes in short sentences and a lot of dialogue: that matches the B1 retellings in the catalog (11-12 words) and comes close to Niebla (13). The vocabulary is another matter. One word in seventeen has 9 letters or more (6.0%), above every B1 retelling (3.7-4.8%) and close to Niebla (6.9%), because this is a complete original with abstract psychological words such as envidia, odio and pasión, and 1917 forms like casóse and fué. So it sits with the complete texts at B2, as the easiest of them in sentence length. The difficulty is fairly even: most chapters run at 8-17 words per sentence, and only the short chapter X and chapter XXXI go higher. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 29 047
- words
- 12
- words in an average sentence
- 5-8
- hours of reading
- 1917
- Renacimiento
Renacimiento, 1917. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Abel Sánchez and Joaquín Monegro have known each other since the cradle. Abel is a cheerful painter whom everyone likes without effort; Joaquín, the hard worker who becomes a doctor, always ends up in his friend’s shadow. When Abel paints a portrait of Helena, the woman Joaquín loves, and then marries her, Joaquín’s envy turns into hatred, which he writes down in a Confesión meant for his daughter. How their long rivalry ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Abel Sánchez
XII. Capítulo 12
. :
« . , . ? ; . . . . ?
Choose an underlined word.
Questions without ¿
In this 1917 edition the opening ¿ and ¡ are mostly missing, so “Y para qué?” and “Vamos allá!” are a question and an exclamation: look for the closing mark. Abel’s como tú quieras (“as you wish”) puts quieras in the subjunctive; Joaquín turns it round in “Como yo quiera no!”, because Abel’s easy yes is exactly what leaves him nothing to argue with.
Joaquín’s own voice
The text between « » is not the narrator: it is Joaquín’s own Confesión, written for his daughter. Notice how he doubts himself: desahogarme (“to vent”) returns as desahogo in the last question, which asks whether the Confession itself is just more venting. Old spellings such as Fué (today fue) belong to 1917.
Chapters
- ICapítulo 1
- IICapítulo 2
- IIICapítulo 3
- IVCapítulo 4
- VCapítulo 5
- VICapítulo 6
- VIICapítulo 7
- VIIICapítulo 8
- IXCapítulo 9
- XCapítulo 10
- XICapítulo 11
- XIICapítulo 12
- XIIICapítulo 13
- XIVCapítulo 14
- XVCapítulo 15
- XVICapítulo 16
- XVIICapítulo 17
- XVIIICapítulo 18
- XIXCapítulo 19
- XXCapítulo 20
- XXICapítulo 21
- XXIICapítulo 22
- XXIIICapítulo 23
- XXIVCapítulo 24
- XXVCapítulo 25
- XXVICapítulo 26
- XXVIICapítulo 27
- XXVIIICapítulo 28
- XXIXCapítulo 29
- XXXCapítulo 30
- XXXICapítulo 31
- XXXIICapítulo 32
- XXXIIICapítulo 33
- XXXIVCapítulo 34
- XXXVCapítulo 35
- XXXVICapítulo 36
- XXXVIICapítulo 37
- XXXVIIICapítulo 38
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
In Joaquín’s Confesión one sentence reads “Me figuro que habrá quien desee tener un tumor pestífero como no le ha tenido antes ninguno para hombrearse con él”: translating the whole sentence in Reader shows how the thought winds around the subjunctive.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: Miguel de Unamuno’s complete novel, all 38 chapters, with the author’s own opening note about Joaquín’s Confesión. The reader follows the Project Gutenberg text of the 1917 edition (Renacimiento, Madrid).
Is there an audiobook?
Abel Sánchez has no audiobook on MovaReader: here the novel is read on screen. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for abstract or bookish words such as desahogarme or hombrearse.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most in the long reflective sentences of the Confesión, for example “Me figuro que habrá quien desee tener un tumor pestífero como no le ha tenido antes ninguno para hombrearse con él”. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 5-8 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The 38 chapters are short, from about 270 to 1,370 words, so a handful make an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
It is fairly even from the start. Most chapters run at 8-17 words per sentence; the short chapter X (about 30 words per sentence) and chapter XXXI (about 22) are the denser ones. The pages Joaquín quotes from his Confesión, set between « », are the most abstract; the rest is scenes and dialogue.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened, so you can come back to the novel every evening where you left off. Any of the 38 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example chapter I.