I. El hombre de carne y hueso
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A philosophical essay on faith and death
Tragic Sense of Life Del sentimiento trágico de la vida
Miguel de Unamuno, 1913
Miguel de Unamuno’s complete essay from the 1913 edition, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C1: about 99,500 words and 25 words per sentence on average. Eleven chapters and a closing chapter on Don Quixote, in which Unamuno asks what a person who cannot accept death is to live by; the pace is even, with chapter I the lightest.
- C1
- 99 522 words
- 17-28 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the long periods and the abstract vocabulary (anhelo, escepticismo, anonadamiento, apocatástasis) will slow you down in nearly every paragraph, and the Latin and Greek quotations come without translation.
B2C1
This text
You can read it at C1: the thought moves in long sentences but keeps returning to the same few ideas, so with word translation a chapter of 5,600 to 13,200 words is manageable.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the book reads freely; only the densest philosophical and theological passages, such as chapters IV and VIII, ask for extra attention.
Start readingThe average sentence has 25 words and about one word in ten has 9 letters or more (10.5%), which puts the book at C1 by the catalog’s rule: it is a complete original with long periods and the abstract vocabulary of philosophy and theology. It sits between The Mediocre Man by José Ingenieros (C1, 21 words per sentence) and Facundo by Sarmiento (C1, 30), and well below Ariel by Rodó, which is C2 at 46 words per sentence. Mist by the same author is B2 at 13 words, because it runs on dialogue; here there is almost none. The difficulty is even: chapters average from 22 words per sentence (chapter I) to 27 (IV and VIII), and the share of long words ranges from 9% in chapter III to 13% in chapter IV. Latin and Greek quotations and epigraphs are left without translation. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 99 522
- words
- 25
- words in an average sentence
- 17-28
- hours of reading
- 1913
- Renacimiento
Renacimiento, 1913. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Unamuno starts from the flesh-and-blood person rather than from the abstract “man” of the philosophers, and asks what that person wants: not to die. The essay follows this hunger for immortality through Spinoza, Kant, Kierkegaard, Catholicism and Protestantism, shows why reason can neither prove nor refute the hope, and looks for a way to live in the uncertainty, through love, compassion, faith and action. The closing chapter turns to Don Quixote and to Spain. Where Unamuno ends up is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Del sentimiento trágico de la vida
III. El hambre de inmortalidad
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Choose an underlined word.
Concrete, not abstract
Unamuno builds the paragraph on the contrast between the adjective humanus, its noun humanitas and the concrete noun hombre. Watch the repeated el que... clauses: they list what the flesh-and-blood person does (nace, sufre y muere, come y bebe) and end in the short punch “el verdadero hermano”. The Latin line is Terence’s, and Unamuno gives it his own twist: nullum hominem a me alienum puto.
Verb first, pronoun after
Esme como una jaula and fáltame en él aire are built with the verb first and the pronoun after it (es + me, falta + me), the bookish order Spanish still used in 1913. Read the series Más, más y cada vez más; quiero ser yo... as one rising movement that ends in the blunt ¡O todo o nada!
Chapters
- IEl hombre de carne y hueso
- IIEl punto de partida
- IIIEl hambre de inmortalidad
- IVLa esencia del catolicismo
- VLa disolución racional
- VIEn el fondo del abismo
- VIIAmor, dolor, compasión y personalidad
- VIIIDe Dios a Dios
- IXFe, esperanza y caridad
- XReligión, mitología de ultratumba y apocatástasis
- XIEl problema práctico
- ·Conclusión. Don Quijote en la tragicomedia europea contemporánea
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 chapter III Spinoza’s idea runs “el ánimo, en fin, ya en sus ideas distintas y claras, ya en las confusas, tiende a perseverar en su ser con duración indefinida y es sabedor de este su empeño”: translating the whole sentence in Reader keeps the thought from getting lost among the asides.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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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 essay, from chapter I to the closing chapter on Don Quixote, ending with the author’s note dated Salamanca, 1912. The reader follows the Renacimiento edition (Madrid, 1913) as Project Gutenberg reproduces it, with the spelling lightly modernised by its transcribers.
Is there an audiobook?
Tragic Sense of Life has no audiobook on MovaReader: here the essay is read on screen. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for abstract and bookish words such as anonadamiento or apocatástasis.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this essay it helps most in the long philosophical periods, for example in chapter III: “el ánimo, en fin, ya en sus ideas distintas y claras, ya en las confusas, tiende a perseverar en su ser con duración indefinida”. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole book takes about 17-28 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The 12 chapters run from about 5,600 to 13,200 words, so one chapter is one or two evenings.
Where does the text get easier?
It stays even rather than getting easier. Chapter I is the lightest (22 words per sentence on average), chapters IV and VIII the densest (27), and chapter III has the fewest long words (9%). The closing chapter on Don Quixote, at about 24 words per sentence, reads a little lighter.
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 return to the book where you left off. Any of the 12 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, from chapter I to the closing chapter on Don Quixote.