X. A la deriva
, . , , .
, , . , ; , .
Jungle and horror stories for B2
Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte
Horacio Quiroga, 1917
Horacio Quiroga’s collection from the 1917 first edition, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is B2: about 49,300 words and 14 words per sentence on average. 18 stories, from a love affair in provincial Concordia to the jungle of Misiones; each reads on its own, and the longest sentences are in “Yaguaí”.
- B2
- 49 304 words
- 8-14 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the words of the jungle and the Argentine countryside (yararacusú, porotos, locro) and the long sentences of “Yaguaí” will slow you down.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: the stories are short, the action moves in short sentences, and local words translate with a tap.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the collection reads freely; only the names of plants and animals of Misiones slow you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 14 words: Quiroga writes tersely, above all in action scenes like “A la deriva”. One word in eleven has 9 letters or more, more often than in Unamuno’s Mist (one in fourteen). The difficulty is even: the stories run from 9 to 18 words per sentence, only “Yaguaí” reaches about 22. What slows you down is the vocabulary of the jungle and the Argentine countryside (yararacusú, mandioca, porotos) and old spellings like vió. Hence B2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 49 304
- words
- 14
- words in an average sentence
- 8-14
- hours of reading
- 1917
- Sociedad Cooperativa Editorial Limitada
Sociedad Cooperativa Editorial Limitada, 1917. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Eighteen stories of love, madness and death. In the first, “Una estación de amor”, young Nébel falls for Lidia in provincial Concordia, and his father will not hear of the marriage. Then comes the jungle of Misiones: a man bitten by a snake paddles down the Paraná in search of help; the fox terrier Yaguaí lives through a drought with a new master; two mensú laborers come back to town after nine months in the forest. There is black humor too, as in “Nuestro primer cigarro”. How each story ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte
XIV. Yaguaí
, , , . , , , . , , , , , , , .
Choose an underlined word.
Short, like a report
Quiroga tells this scene in short sentences, and almost each one starts with an action: pisó, sintió, saltó, sacó. Yararacusú is the name of a venomous snake of Misiones, not a general word. Vió with an accent is the 1917 spelling of today’s vio. Arrollada sobre sí misma means “coiled up”, and cayó de plano: the machete struck with its flat side.
Words from the backlands
These are three sentences of about forty words each: Quiroga strings asides together with commas (para no ofender a su amo, para no quebrar del todo con la cocinera). The words come from rural Argentine cooking: mandioca and mandiocal (cassava and a cassava field), porotos (beans; in Spain they say judías), locro (a thick corn stew), maíz sancochado. Coleaba: the dog “wagged its tail” for its master.
Chapters
- IUna estación de amor
- IILos ojos sombríos
- IIIEl solitario
- IVLa muerte de Isolda
- VEl infierno artificial
- VILa gallina degollada
- VIILos buques suicidantes
- VIIIEl almohadón de pluma
- IXEl perro rabioso
- XA la deriva
- XILa insolación
- XIIEl alambre de púa
- XIIILos Mensú
- XIVYaguaí
- XVLos pescadores de vigas
- XVILa miel silvestre
- XVIINuestro primer cigarro
- XVIIILa meningitis y su sombra
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 “Yaguaí” sentences average about 22 words and the jungle descriptions reach forty: translating the whole sentence in Reader keeps the thread of the story.
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: Horacio Quiroga’s whole collection, all 18 stories. The reader follows the 1917 first edition (Sociedad Cooperativa Editorial Limitada, Buenos Aires) and keeps the spelling of the time: vió and fué instead of today’s vio and fue.
Is there an audiobook?
This collection has no audiobook on MovaReader: here the stories are read. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for jungle words such as yararacusú or mandioca.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this collection it helps most in “Yaguaí”, where sentences average about 22 words and the jungle descriptions reach forty. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole collection takes about 8-14 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The stories vary in length, from “A la deriva” at about 1,000 words to “La meningitis y su sombra” at about 7,400, so a short one fits into an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: the stories run from 9 to 18 words per sentence, only “Yaguaí” reaches about 22. The shortest sentences are in “El solitario”, about 9 words, which makes it a good place to start.
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 collection every evening where you left off. Any of the 18 stories also opens from the contents on this page, for example “A la deriva”, one of the shortest.