I. En el jardín de la Capilla Expiatoria
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A novel of the First World War for C1
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, 1919
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s novel of 1916 in the complete Prometeo edition of 1919, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C1: about 130,900 words and 15 words per sentence on average. Fifteen chapters in three parts follow the Desnoyers family from Argentina and Paris into the First World War; the sentences are not long, but one word in eight has nine letters or more, and the vocabulary is the real work.
- C1
- 130 859 words
- 22-36 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the long clauses and the dense vocabulary of war, money and art will slow almost every page, and the old spellings (á, fué, dió) will need unpacking; expect to translate words often.
B2C1
This text
You can manage it at C1: sentences are of ordinary length, the story moves in scenes and dialogue, and only the political and war passages ask for specialist words.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the novel reads freely; what remains is the period vocabulary of 1914 (military, finance, painting) and the old spelling.
Start readingThe average sentence has 15 words, shorter than in Blood and Sand (17) or The Cabin (21), both C1 as well. What sets the level is the vocabulary: one word in eight has 9 letters or more (13.1%), clearly above the catalog’s C1 mark of one in ten. The difficulty is even: chapters run from 14 to 17 words per sentence and from 11% to 14.5% long words, with chapter IV of the Third Part the lightest and chapter II of the Third Part the densest, so there is no easy opening to settle into. Hence C1, with sentences of a length a B2 reader can follow. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 130 859
- words
- 15
- words in an average sentence
- 22-36
- hours of reading
- 1919
- Prometeo
Prometeo, 1919. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Julio Desnoyers, a painter and tango dancer in Paris, arrives early at the garden of the Chapelle Expiatoire to meet the married woman he loves. His father Marcelo, a Frenchman who made a fortune in Argentina, and his German relatives, the von Hartrotts, belong to a family that the summer of 1914 pulls apart. The old rancher Madariaga, “the centaur” of the Argentine pampas, is where the money comes from; then the war reaches France, the house in Paris and the family’s country house near the front. What happens to Julio and to those he loves is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis
III. La retirada
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— — .
, . ¿ , , ?... ¿ , ?...
Choose an underlined word.
Old spelling: á and fué
The text keeps the 1919 orthography: á is today’s a (llegar á su amada, fué á refugiarse) and fué, dió are today’s fue, dio. Read them as the modern words and the sentences become ordinary; the accent changes no meaning.
Questions as thoughts
The two questions with ¿Por qué...? are Marcelo’s own thoughts, with no “he wondered” to introduce them. The pluperfect (se la había llevado, había querido) places them before the present moment, and the dots after the question mark leave the thought hanging.
Chapters
- IEn el jardín de la Capilla Expiatoria
- IIEl centauro Madariaga
- IIILa familia Desnoyers
- IVEl primo de Berlín
- VDonde aparecen los cuatro jinetes
- ILas envidias de don Marcelo
- IIVida nueva
- IIILa retirada
- IVJunto á la gruta sagrada
- VLa invasión
- IDespués del Marne
- IIEn el estudio
- IIILa guerra
- IVNo hay quien le mate
- VCampos de muerte
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 chapter III of the Second Part the novel asks “¿Por qué capricho sentimental había querido permanecer al lado de su hermana, perdiendo la oportunidad de regresar á Berlín antes de que se cerrasen las fronteras?”: translating the whole sentence in Reader shows how the participle clause and the subjunctive hang on the question.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s complete novel of 1916, all 15 chapters in three parts. The text follows the Prometeo edition (Valencia) that carries the copyright date 1919, taken from Project Gutenberg, and keeps the spelling of the time: á for a, fué, dió.
Is there an audiobook?
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 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 words such as reverberos, manguito or titubeantes.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most with the long questions and reflective passages, for example “¿Por qué capricho sentimental había querido permanecer al lado de su hermana, perdiendo la oportunidad de regresar á Berlín antes de que se cerrasen las fronteras?”. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 22-36 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The 15 chapters are long, from about 3,700 to 24,900 words, so a chapter is best read over several sittings.
Where does the text get easier?
It stays even. Chapters average 14 to 17 words per sentence, and long words range from 11% to 14.5%. The lightest chapter is IV of the Third Part (14 words per sentence, 11% long words); the densest is II of the Third Part, with 14.5% long words.
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 15 chapters also opens from the contents on this page; each of the three parts begins at its chapter I.