I. Historia de la puerta
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A gothic novella in Spanish for C1
The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll El caso extraño del Doctor Jekyll
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1891
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella in the Spanish translation by Emilio Soulère, published in New York in 1891, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C1: about 25,600 words and 26 words per sentence on average. 10 chapters: the lawyer Utterson’s investigation and two accounts, by Dr Lanyon and by Jekyll himself, where the text is densest.
- C1
- 25 648 words
- 4-7 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the long sentences of the translation, 26 words on average, and old spellings like á and ó with accents will slow you down.
B2C1
This text
You can manage it at C1: Utterson’s investigation moves in moderate sentences, and the two closing accounts can be read slowly, translating whole sentences.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the novella reads freely; only the old-fashioned language of the 1891 translation slows you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 26 words, the longest among the catalog’s Spanish C1 books: The Mediocre Man has 21 and A Wedding Trip 20. One word in ten has 9 letters or more, as in The Lady of the Camellias. The difficulty is uneven: chapters I-VIII, Utterson’s investigation, average about 23 words per sentence, and the two closing accounts, Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s, about 32. The 1891 translation keeps the old spelling: á and ó with accents, fué. Hence C1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 25 648
- words
- 26
- words in an average sentence
- 4-7
- hours of reading
- 1891
- D. Appleton y Compañía
D. Appleton y Compañía, 1891. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
The lawyer Utterson hears from a kinsman about a brutal man named Hyde who bought his way out of a scandal with a cheque signed by a respectable gentleman. Utterson is troubled that his friend Dr Henry Jekyll leaves everything to this Hyde in his will. He starts his own inquiry, and meanwhile London is shaken by news of a murder. The solution comes in the two closing accounts, which are not retold here.
Compare two places
El caso extraño del Doctor Jekyll
X. Explicación completa del caso extraño del Dr. Enrique Jekyll
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Choose an underlined word.
A portrait split by semicolons
The first sentence builds Utterson’s portrait out of a list split by semicolons: frío, lacónico y confuso...; poco expansivo; flaco, alto.... Y sin embargo means “and yet”. Ese no sé qué: “that certain something”, and síntomas mudos are “silent signs” that show on the face after dinner.
Jekyll begins with himself
Jekyll’s statement opens like an autobiography: Nací (“I was born”), heredero de una gran fortuna. The second sentence rests on a contrast: una tendencia excesiva hacia la alegría, ...pero difícil de conciliar con... (“a leaning towards gaiety, hard to reconcile with...”). Llevar la frente alta means “to hold one’s head high”, to act with dignity.
Where the text gets harder
I-VIIIthe investigation leads
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 Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s accounts sentences average about 32 words: translating the whole sentence in Reader keeps you from losing the thread.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is Stevenson’s complete novella in a Spanish translation, not an adaptation. The English original came out in 1886; this translation by Emilio Soulère was published by D. Appleton in New York in 1891, and the reader follows it. The cover gives the author a Spanish name: Roverto Luis Stevenson.
Is there an audiobook?
This Spanish novella has no audiobook on MovaReader: here it is read. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for bookish words such as lacónico or ostensible.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novella it helps most in Lanyon’s and Jekyll’s accounts, chapters IX and X, where sentences average about 32 words. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novella takes about 4-7 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Chapters run from 540 to 7,300 words; the longest, Jekyll’s statement, takes a few evenings.
Where does the text get easier?
The first part is easier. Chapters I-VIII, Utterson’s investigation, average about 23 words per sentence, and the two closing accounts, IX and X, about 32.
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 novella every evening where you left off. Any of the 10 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example chapter IX, where the two closing accounts begin.