II. Conozco a la hermana San Sulpicio
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A comic novel in Andalusian Spanish for B2
Sister San Sulpicio La hermana San Sulpicio
Armando Palacio Valdés, 1906
The complete 1889 novel by Armando Palacio Valdés, in the text of the 1906 edition, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is B2: about 116,500 words and 16 words per sentence on average. 16 chapters narrated by the Galician poet Ceferino Sanjurjo, who falls in love with a lively Andalusian nun and follows her to Seville; the main hurdle is the Andalusian speech in the dialogue, written as it sounds.
- B2
- 116 515 words
- 19-32 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the long narrative paragraphs and the 19th-century vocabulary will feel heavy, and the Andalusian spellings in the dialogue (sa hase for se hace, bendisión for bendición) need extra attention.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: most of the book is lively dialogue in sentences of about 16 words, and you can look up the odd rare word or local expression as you go.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novel reads freely; only Andalusian slang, old-fashioned turns and the narrator’s ironic asides still slow you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 16 words, the same as Insolación and Fortunata y Jacinta (both B2) and clearly below C1 novels such as Los pazos de Ulloa and La barraca (20-21). About one word in ten has 9 letters or more (9.6%), just under where the catalog’s C1 books begin. The difficulty is even: every chapter averages between 14 and 17 words per sentence, except the last, at about 19. What adds work is the vocabulary of 19th-century narration and the speech of Seville, spelled as it sounds. Hence B2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 116 515
- words
- 16
- words in an average sentence
- 19-32
- hours of reading
- 1906
- Victoriano Suárez
Victoriano Suárez, 1906. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Ceferino Sanjurjo, a young poet from Galicia, goes to the spa at Marmolejo to take the waters. There he meets a young nun with black eyes and an irrepressible laugh, the sister San Sulpicio, and falls in love with her. When the nuns return to Seville, he follows them. He finds a city of patios, fans and gossip, new friends who take his side, and a few rivals. How his pursuit ends is not revealed here.
Compare two places
La hermana San Sulpicio
VIII. Con perdón de ustedes, pelo la pava
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— , , ¿ ?
—¡! ¡, , ! ¿ ?
Choose an underlined word.
Mire que, a gentle warning
In “mire que es pecado reírse” the mother uses mire que (“look, it is a sin to...”) to scold gently; nobody is being asked to look at anything. Esta se puso colorada como una amapola is a set comparison for blushing, and the whole scene turns on that blush against the other nun’s laughter. Note how the dashes work: the tag le dijo la madre closes the line, and a new dash opens the next speaker.
Heat and irony
Matildita’s si ahora está haciendo fresquito is ironic: the diminutive fresquito makes a scorching evening sound mild, which is how Sevillians play down their heat. ¡Anda! and hijo mío are everyday address, not literal (the speaker is a woman, the “son” a grown man). The paragraph before is literary description: ínclita ciudad, cielo puro y flamígero, the sun as a latigazo de fuego.
Chapters
- IA las aguas de Marmolejo
- IIConozco a la hermana San Sulpicio
- IIIMe enamoro de la hermana San Sulpicio
- IVPeteneras y seguidillas
- VA Sevilla
- VIEl patio de las de Anguita
- VIIPreparativos para el bloqueo
- VIIICon perdón de ustedes, pelo la pava
- IXHago amistad con un bendito señor
- XTropiezo con un grave escollo
- XIMe dedico a buscar a Paca
- XIIPaseo por el Guadalquivir
- XIIIDoy una bofetada que puede costarme cara
- XIVPrincipio a ser un héroe de novela
- XVTropiezo de nuevo con el malagueño
- XVIEn qué paró la hermana San Sulpicio
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
Seville’s irony can hide in a short line: in “¡Anda! ¡Pues, hijo mío, si ahora está haciendo fresquito!” a scorching night is called cool, and translating the whole sentence in Reader shows the joke at once.
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: Armando Palacio Valdés’s complete novel, all 16 chapters, first published in 1889. The reader follows the 1906 edition (Victoriano Suárez, Madrid) from Project Gutenberg, with the chapter titles as printed.
Is there an audiobook?
La hermana San Sulpicio has no audiobook on MovaReader: here the novel is read on screen. The translation appears when you tap a word, and you will need it most for rare or bookish words such as ínclita or flamígero.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most with Andalusian wit and slang, for example “¡Anda! ¡Pues, hijo mío, si ahora está haciendo fresquito!”, where the tone matters as much as the words. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 19-32 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The 16 chapters run from about 3,000 to about 11,700 words, so one chapter is an evening or two.
Where does the text get easier?
It is even. Almost every chapter averages 14 to 17 words per sentence, and only the last is a little longer, at about 19. What changes is the speech: Andalusian dialogue, spelled as it sounds, takes over as the story moves to Seville.
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 novel every evening where you left off. Any of the 16 chapters also opens from the contents on this page.