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I. La moral de los idealistas
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An essay on ideals and mediocrity for C1
The Mediocre Man El hombre mediocre
José Ingenieros, 1913
An essay by the Argentine physician and thinker José Ingenieros from the 1913 first edition, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C1: about 71,000 words and 21 words per sentence on average. 10 parts on idealists, mediocre people, envy and genius; there is no plot, so it reads well one part at a time.
- C1
- 70 983 words
- 12-20 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 abstract words like excelsitud or inasible, long rhetorical sentences and the old spellings á and ó will slow you down.
B2C1
This text
You can manage it at C1: the parts are equally demanding, and each can be read on its own, translating single words.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the essay reads freely; only the names of thinkers and the Latin and Italian quotations slow you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 21 words, almost as in Pardo Bazán’s A Wedding Trip (20), but one word in six has 9 letters or more: the highest share among the catalog’s Spanish books, where The Lady of the Camellias and A Wedding Trip have one in ten. It is an essay without a plot, with abstract words like excelsitud or inasible. The difficulty is even: all ten parts run between 18 and 23 words per sentence. Hence C1: the densest vocabulary on the shelf, but sentences no longer than in the C1 novels. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 70 983
- words
- 21
- words in an average sentence
- 12-20
- hours of reading
- 1913
- Renacimiento
Renacimiento, 1913. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Ingenieros sets idealists, who strive for perfection, against mediocre people, who live by habit and other people’s opinions. He examines intellectual and moral mediocrity, envy, old age that levels everything, and mediocracy, the rule of the mediocre in society. The last parts turn to genius, including the Argentines Sarmiento and Ameghino. There is no plot: each part reads as a separate essay.
Compare two places
El hombre mediocre
VI. La envidia
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Choose an underlined word.
The author says tú
Ingenieros addresses the reader as tú: pones, tiendes, llevas, custódiala. The first sentence is long because the cuando... clause pulls in several phrases, and the main point arrives only at the end: llevas en ti el resorte misterioso de un Ideal (“you carry within you the secret spring of an Ideal”). Á with an accent is the 1913 spelling of today’s a.
A fable instead of a definition
Here the essay turns into a fable for a moment, and the sentences shorten. A toad (sapo) sees a firefly (luciérnaga) up on the rocks and smothers it with its cold belly. The whole point lies in the two questions at the end: ¿Por qué me tapas? (“why do you cover me?”) and ¿Por qué brillas? (“why do you shine?”). Toscas are rocks here, as they say in Argentina.
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
The very first sentence of the book runs through several phrases before its main point: translating the whole sentence in Reader shows where it lies.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
All books at this levelBefore you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: José Ingenieros’s complete essay, all 10 parts. The reader follows the 1913 first edition (Renacimiento, Madrid and Buenos Aires) and keeps the spelling of the time: á and ó with accents where today one writes a and o.
Is there an audiobook?
The Mediocre Man has no audiobook on MovaReader: here the essay is read. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for abstract words such as excelsitud or inasible.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this essay it helps most in parts IV and VII, “La mediocridad moral” and “La vejez niveladora”, where sentences average about 23 words. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole essay takes about 12-20 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The parts run from 4,400 to 11,600 words, so one takes an evening or two.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: all ten parts run between 18 and 23 words per sentence, with a long word from one in seven to one in five. The lightest in vocabulary is part VI, “La envidia”, with its fable of the toad and the firefly.
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 essay every evening where you left off. Any of the 10 parts also opens from the contents on this page, for example part VI, “La envidia”.