VIII. A la deriva: La víbora
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Five Quiroga stories, adapted for A2
Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte
Horacio Quiroga
This is a retelling of Horacio Quiroga’s Stories of Love, Madness and Death (Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte, 1917) in simple Spanish, not the original text: the MovaReader adaptation takes 5 of the 18 stories and tells each one to the end. They are “El almohadón de pluma” (The Feather Pillow), “La gallina degollada” (The Decapitated Chicken), “A la deriva” (Drifting), “La insolación” (Sunstroke) and “La miel silvestre” (Wild Honey). If you were looking for Quiroga in Spanish and the full B2 collection is still too hard, these are the same stories in a form you can actually finish at A2: about 8,000 words, 8 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading.
- A2
- 7 979 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and long words will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (llegó, sentía, había vaciado), and a long word comes up about once in 26, against once in 36 or less in A1 adaptations.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: short sentences, the past tenses you already know, and jungle words like trapiche or pajonal are explained in the text itself.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy evening’s read; next you can take on Quiroga’s full collection, which is in the catalog: all 18 stories, about 49,300 words, 14 words per sentence, level B2.
Start readingThe average sentence has 8 words, shorter than in the Spanish A2 adaptations Legends of Bécquer and Dracula (10 each): lines like «¡Dame caña!» bring the average down further. But for A1 the text is hard. The story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, with some pluscuamperfecto (había vaciado, se había sacado) and subjunctive (que matara una gallina, como si fuera comida). A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 26 words (3.9%): the highest share among the Spanish A2 adaptations, a little above The Nutcracker (3.7%) and well above Legends of Bécquer (2.8%) and Dracula (2.4%); in A1 adaptations it is 2.8% at most. Jungle words (yararacusú, trapiche, pajonal, corrección) are explained in a sentence. The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 7-10 words per sentence. The full collection in the catalog is B2: 14 words per sentence and a long word every eleventh (8.9%). Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 7 979
- words
- 8
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Horacio Quiroga, “Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte” (1917), Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Five stories of love, madness and death. Young Alicia, newly married, lives with her stern husband Jordán in a cold white house and falls ill with a strange weakness that the doctors cannot explain. The Mazzinis have four sick sons who sit all day on a bench in the yard, and they give all their love to their fifth child, their daughter Bertita. A man in the jungle is bitten by a snake and sets off down the Paraná in his canoe to find help. Five fox terriers on a farm in the Chaco see a figure in the field that looks like their master, Mr Jones. And Gabriel Benincasa, a quiet young accountant in new boots, goes looking for adventure in the jungle of Misiones. How each story ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte
XIII. La miel silvestre: Un contador en la selva
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Choose an underlined word.
Horacio Quiroga, “Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte” (1917), Project Gutenberg
How to read the walk to the hut
Two past tenses alternate here. Aumentaba, sentía, iban and tenía (imperfecto) describe a state that lasts the whole way: the pain grows, the throat dries up. Sintió, llegó, se echó and quiso (pretérito indefinido) tell what happened once. In la voz se le rompió en la garganta, the se le shows that his voice broke on its own, against his will, and the text explains the word trapiche right away.
How to read the ants
After the first sentence the text moves into the present tense: this is not an event but an explanation of how the ants that people in Misiones call corrección live. The verbs come in a chain (avanzan, devoran, huyen, matan), and the list of animals after the colon can be read without translating every word. No hay rincón ni agujero donde no entre is a double negative: the ants get into every corner and every hole.
Chapters
- IEl almohadón de pluma: Una casa blanca y fría
- IIEl almohadón de pluma: Una enfermedad sin nombre
- IIIEl almohadón de pluma: Lo que había en la almohada
- IVLa gallina degollada: Cuatro hermanos en un banco
- VLa gallina degollada: Tus hijos
- VILa gallina degollada: La niña mimada
- VIILa gallina degollada: La tarde en el patio
- VIIIA la deriva: La víbora
- IXA la deriva: El río de oro
- XLa insolación: Cinco perros al sol
- XILa insolación: La Muerte en el campo
- XIILa insolación: El último camino
- XIIILa miel silvestre: Un contador en la selva
- XIVLa miel silvestre: La miel del monte
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
Reader helps in chapter XIII, where the narrator compares Gabriel to a man about to marry: Pero hay solteros muy serios que, antes de casarse, quieren una noche loca con sus amigos; translating the whole sentence shows where the comparison leads.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte Another book by the same author B2 Stories of Love, Madness and Death Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte Quiroga’s full collection, the source of these five stories: all 18 of them, about 49,300 words, 14 words per sentence, level B2, in the spelling of the 1917 edition. The next step after this retelling. B2 Legends of Bécquer Leyendas de Bécquer Five more dark tales in simple Spanish at A2, this time Bécquer’s Spanish legends of the night of the dead, an enchanted spring and a ruined abbey. Shorter, about 5,500 words, with 10 words per sentence and 2.8% long words. A2
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: Horacio Quiroga’s collection Cuentos de amor de locura y de muerte (1917) retold in simple Spanish, with 5 of its 18 stories, each told to the very end: “El almohadón de pluma”, “La gallina degollada”, “A la deriva”, “La insolación” and “La miel silvestre”. The other 13, such as “Una estación de amor”, “Yaguaí” or “Los mensú”, are not here. The opening of “La miel silvestre”, about two cousins, is shortened, the ending of “La gallina degollada” is told without its cruel details, and local words such as yararacusú or pajonal are explained in the text itself. The full collection, all 18 stories, is in the catalog as a separate book at B2.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of this adaptation in MovaReader. The page is for reading: tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation, here mostly words like almohadón, víbora or pajonal.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 8 words on average, so you will seldom need it: mostly in descriptions of nature, as in chapter IX, where the Paraná runs along the bottom of a huge valley. Single words are translated for free, up to a daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 1-2 hours, reading with translations of new words rather than at a native speaker’s pace. The five stories differ in length: the shortest is “A la deriva”, 1,079 words, the longest “La gallina degollada”, 2,050, so each one fits into an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 7 to 10 words per sentence. Only long words vary: most of them are in chapter XIII, where the accountant arrives in the jungle (5.6%, every eighteenth word), fewest in chapter IX, about the river (2.6%, about one in 38).
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Each story starts with its own chapter, so you can open it from the contents on this page, for example VIII, where “A la deriva” begins.