III. El licenciado Cabra
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« », . « . ».
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«¿ ? ¡ ! , , ».
A picaresque novel adapted for A2
El Buscón El Buscón
Francisco de Quevedo
This is a retelling of Francisco de Quevedo’s El Buscón (Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado don Pablos, 1626) in simple Spanish, not the original text: MovaReader wrote this adaptation for readers who can already follow the past tenses. If you were looking for El Buscón in Spanish and the complete B2 novel is still too hard, this is the same story, one you can actually finish at A2. In the catalog it is A2: about 9,000 words, 9 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading. Pablos tells his own adventures in 14 chapters, from Segovia and Alcalá to Madrid, Toledo and Seville.
- A2
- 8 976 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and longer sentences will stop you: Pablos narrates in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (nací, robaba, decía), with 9 words per sentence on average, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: short scenes, lively dialogue in «» quotes and the past tenses you know, with 17th-century realities named in plain words (el jefe de la justicia, los guardias).
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy read for an evening or two; next try Quevedo’s complete novel at B2: 23 words per sentence, one word in fifteen long, and the wordplay and slang this retelling leaves out.
Start readingThe average sentence has 9 words: a little shorter than in the Spanish A2 adaptations Lazarillo de Tormes and Don Quixote (10 each), and longer than in A1 adaptations (5-7). A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 34 words (2.9%): close to Don Quixote (2.8%), slightly more often than in Lazarillo (2.2%), and clearly less often than in the B1 retelling of La Celestina (4.3%, 12 words per sentence). Pablos narrates in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (nací, robaba, decía), addresses his listener with usted (Usted ya se imagina cómo quedé), and the subjunctive appears in simple patterns such as como si fuera una fiesta or quería que yo aprendiera. The original in the catalog is B2: 23 words per sentence, one word in fifteen long (6.6%), conceptista wordplay and thieves’ slang. Here the wordplay and the slang are gone, and the realities of the period are named in plain words. The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 8.5-9.8 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 8 976
- words
- 9
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Pablos is born in Segovia to a barber who empties his customers’ pockets and a mother the neighbours call a witch. The boy dreams of becoming a gentleman, goes to school and becomes the servant and friend of the rich Don Diego. Together they end up with the licenciado Cabra, the meanest schoolmaster in the world, and then at the university of Alcalá, where newcomers are greeted with cruel jokes, and Pablos decides to be a rogue among rogues. A letter from his uncle, the town hangman, calls him back to Segovia for an inheritance, and the road brings strange companions: an inventor who wants to dry up the sea with sponges, a fencing master with a compass, a sacristan poet. In Madrid Pablos joins a brotherhood of penniless hidalgos who live on tricks alone, lands in prison and, calling himself Don Filipe Tristán, courts a rich bride. Whether the barber’s son ever becomes a real gentleman, the book tells.
Compare two places
El Buscón
IX. El hidalgo don Toribio
« », . « . . , .
» . . , : “ , ”.
» , . , . , : “ , , , ”. .
Choose an underlined word.
How Cabra praises an empty broth
The joke is exaggeration: un caldo tan claro que se podía ver el fondo, “a broth so clear you could see the bottom”, where tan... que gives the result. Decía a cada trago is in the imperfect: Cabra said it again with every sip. Coman, coman is a command in the ustedes form, to all the boys at once, and ¿Nabo hay?, with the verb at the end, sounds like a surprised cry: “Turnip, is there?”.
Who is speaking, and in which tense
The » at the start of a paragraph means Don Toribio is still speaking: his speech runs over several paragraphs, and the “ ” quotes inside give the words he says to others. Pablos narrates in the past, but Toribio describes his habits in the present: recogemos, decimos, vamos, probamos. Que en paz descanse is said of someone who has died, like “God rest his soul”.
Chapters
- IMis padres de Segovia
- IILa escuela y el rey de gallos
- IIIEl licenciado Cabra
- IVLa venta de Viveros
- VLas burlas de Alcalá
- VILa carta del verdugo
- VIIPoetas, soldados y ermitaños
- VIIIEn casa de mi tío
- IXEl hidalgo don Toribio
- XLa cofradía de los buscones
- XILa cárcel y la posada
- XIIDon Filipe Tristán
- XIIIMendigo y actor
- XIVMonjas, Sevilla y las Indias
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 III, where after Cabra’s starving school los médicos mandaron que nadie hablara alto en nuestro cuarto: translating the whole sentence shows how Spanish puts the subjunctive after mandar que.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier El Buscón Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado don Pablos Another book by the same author B2 El Buscón Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado don Pablos Quevedo’s complete novel, the source of this retelling: B2, about 43,100 words, 23 words per sentence, one word in fifteen long. Once you know the plot, the wordplay and thieves’ slang this retelling leaves out are easier to follow. B2 Lazarillo de Tormes The first picaresque novel (1554), the one that started the Buscón’s genre: also a MovaReader A2 retelling, about 7,400 words, 10 words per sentence, 2.2% long words. Lázaro also serves one master after another and goes hungry, so the two books read well side by side. 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: Francisco de Quevedo’s novel El Buscón (Historia de la vida del Buscón, llamado don Pablos), first printed in Zaragoza in 1626, retold in simple Spanish and in the first person, as in the original. The main episodes of all three libros remain: the childhood in Segovia, Cabra’s starving school, the inn at Viveros, the pranks in Alcalá, the hangman uncle’s letter, the strange companions on the road, the brotherhood of swindlers in Madrid, prison, the courtship of “Don Filipe Tristán”, begging and the theatre in Toledo, Seville. The wordplay, the thieves’ slang and most of the verse are left out, the coarse humour is toned down, and the original’s offensive jokes about Jews are removed. The complete novel is in the catalog as a separate book, at B2.
Is there an audiobook?
There is no audiobook of this adaptation in MovaReader; the text is read on screen. Tap an unfamiliar word to see its translation, here mostly words like garbanzo, verdugo or escribano.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 9 words on average, so you will rarely need a whole one translated, except where a verb of wanting takes the subjunctive, as in Cada uno quería que yo aprendiera su oficio in chapter I. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the 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 14 chapters average about 640 words: the shortest is I, 443 words, the longest III, 771, so a chapter takes roughly 3 to 10 minutes.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters averages 8.5 to 9.8 words per sentence. Only the long words vary a little: in chapter XI, about the prison, where escribano and carcelero keep coming back, every 22nd word is a long one, and in chapters VIII and X just one in 56.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example III, where the licenciado Cabra feeds his pupils a broth with a single chickpea in it.