I. Una noche en Salamanca
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A romantic legend adapted for A2
The Student of Salamanca El estudiante de Salamanca
José de Espronceda
This is a retelling of José de Espronceda’s verse legend El estudiante de Salamanca in simple Spanish prose, not the original text: MovaReader wrote this adaptation for readers who are still stopped by the complete B2 poem. It is the same story, one you can actually finish at A2: no verse, no twisted word order and no old language, with the dialogue in «» quotes. In the catalog it is A2: about 5,900 words, 8 words per sentence on average, 1-2 hours of reading. Its fourteen chapters follow the four parts of the 1840 poem, from a night duel in Salamanca and the abandoned Elvira to the gambling room and Don Félix de Montemar’s long night.
- A2
- 5 926 words
- 1-2 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and the grammar of the dialogue will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (entró, ardía, llevaba), the characters speak with usted and now and then in the subjunctive, even though the sentences are short, 8 words on average.
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2: short sentences, the past tenses you already know, few long words, and an eerie romantic legend that keeps you reading to the last chapter.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy evening’s read; next you can take on Espronceda’s complete poem, which sits at B2 in the catalog: about 9,500 words, 23 words per sentence, verse and the romantic language of 1840.
Start readingThe average sentence has 8 words, shorter than in most Spanish A2 adaptations in the catalog: A Christmas Carol has 9, Lazarillo de Tormes and Legends of Bécquer 10. By sentence length alone the book is closer to A1, where tales such as Puss in Boots keep to 5-7 words, but A1 stories stay in the present tense, while this one runs entirely in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, the characters address each other with usted (Deme dinero y se la lleva), and their lines bring in the subjunctive and the conditional: Si la mujer estuviera aquí... la jugaría también a ella. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 58 words (1.7%), less often than in Lazarillo (2.2%) or Legends of Bécquer (2.8%), and most of them are plain words and imperfecto forms: alrededor, tranquila, caballero, señalaban. Espronceda’s complete poem sits at B2: 23 words per sentence, a long word in every seventeen (5.8%), and verse with twisted word order. The difficulty is even across chapters, 7 to 11 words per sentence. Hence A2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 5 926
- words
- 8
- words in an average sentence
- 1-2
- hours of reading
MovaReader. José de Espronceda, «El estudiante de Salamanca» (1840), Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Salamanca, past midnight. Swords clash in the dark, a man cries out as he dies, and a cloaked figure with a bloody sword walks down the narrow Street of the Coffin, past a lamp burning before a crucifix. He is Don Félix de Montemar, a student the town calls a second Don Juan Tenorio: he fears neither God nor the devil and leaves women without regret. One of them, young Elvira, loses her mind over him and writes him a last letter. Later, at a gambling table where Félix stakes a gold chain, a portrait and his own word, her brother Don Diego de Pastrana walks in and challenges him to a duel. That night, in the same dark street, Félix sees a woman under a white veil and follows her. Where she leads him, the book tells.
Compare two places
El estudiante de Salamanca
IX. La dama de blanco
. . . , .
«¿ ?», . . .
. . . . .
Choose an underlined word.
José de Espronceda, «El estudiante de Salamanca» (1840), Wikisource
How to read the Street of the Coffin
The description rests on the imperfecto: estaba, ardía, tenía and daba show the street as it always was, while entró, pasó and brilló tell what the man did that one night. The pairs a veces... y a veces and ahora... ahora mean “now... now”: the lamp kept lighting up and going out. Hoja is neither a sheet of paper nor a leaf here, but the blade of the sword.
How to read the meeting in the dark
Almost every short sentence here is one event in the pretérito indefinido: oyó, sintió, preguntó, tocó, dio, vio, creció. Se pusieron tensos is built with ponerse, which marks a change of state: his nerves “grew tense”. Juró contra Dios does not mean he swore an oath but that he cursed God, and ¿Quién va? is the old sentry’s call, “Who goes there?”
Chapters
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 X, where the lady warns Don Félix Sus placeres de hoy pueden ser penas eternas mañana: translating the whole sentence keeps placeres and penas in their places.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier The Student of Salamanca El estudiante de Salamanca Another book by the same author B2 The Student of Salamanca El estudiante de Salamanca The complete text of Espronceda’s poem behind this retelling: verse of 1840, about 9,500 words, 23 words per sentence and a long word in every seventeen, level B2. With the plot already familiar, the original is easier to take on. B2 Don Juan Tenorio Don Félix is called a second Don Juan Tenorio, and this is a retelling of Zorrilla’s drama about Don Juan himself: also in prose with dialogue, also a Spain of swords and night visions, but at B1, twice as long, about 12,600 words, with 11 words per sentence. B1
All books at this level
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: José de Espronceda’s verse legend El estudiante de Salamanca (The Student of Salamanca), first published in 1840 in his Poesías, retold in simple Spanish prose with dialogue, without the verse or old forms such as vos. All four parts of the poem and all its main scenes remain: the night duel, the portrait of Don Félix, Elvira’s story and her last letter, the cards and dice, Don Diego de Pastrana, the lady in white and the long night in the streets of Salamanca. The narrator’s lyrical digressions, the long similes and the card-game terms are cut, Elvira’s letter is shortened to five short paragraphs, and the scene written as a play in part three is told as narrative with dialogue. The complete poem 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 it will mostly be words of night, swords and ghosts, such as espada, sombra or calavera.
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 for Don Félix’s jokes at the gambling table, such as Si Dios lo escucha a usted, voy a terminar de esclavo en Fez. 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 book has 14 chapters of about 420 words on average, 4-9 minutes each: the shortest is II, 259 words, the longest XIV, 676.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters averages 7-11 words per sentence. Sentences are a little longer in the narrative chapters at the start (II, 11 words) and shortest at the gambling table (VIII, 7 words), where it is all dialogue. Long words are most frequent in chapter XI, where Félix wanders the streets (one word in 29), and rarest in chapter X, the talk with the lady (one in 200).
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Each chapter also opens on its own from the contents on this page, for example VI, where the scene at the gambling table begins.