VI. Los cuatro jinetes
« . . , . . , , . , . . , ».
A First World War novel, adapted for A2
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis
Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
This is a retelling of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis) in simple Spanish, not the original text: MovaReader wrote this adaptation from Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s novel of 1916. If you were looking for the novel in Spanish and the complete C1 text is still too hard, this is the same story of the Desnoyers family, one you can actually finish at A2. In the catalog it is A2: about 9,900 words, 10 words per sentence on average, 2-3 hours of reading. Its fourteen chapters follow the novel’s three parts, from a meeting in a Paris garden in July 1914 to the Battle of the Marne and beyond.
- A2
- 9 858 words
- 2-3 hours
Will this text hold?
A1
Earlier
At A1 the past tenses and longer words will stop you: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto (llegó, hablaba, había vivido), with 10 words per sentence on average against 5-7 in A1 adaptations, and the second half adds the vocabulary of war (trincheras, regimiento, bayonetas).
A1A2
This text
Just right for A2, if at the top of the level: short scenes, plenty of dialogue, the past tenses you know, and new words that mostly come from one field, war.
Check this passageB1
With room to spare
At B1 it is an easy read over a few evenings; next try Les Misérables retold for B1 (11 words per sentence, 4.8% long words) or Blasco Ibáñez’s complete novel at C1.
Start readingThe average sentence has 10 words, as in the Spanish A2 adaptations Don Quixote and Mist, against 5-7 in A1 adaptations and 11-12 in B1 retellings such as Les Misérables. A word of 9 letters or more comes up about once in 23 words (4.3%): more often than in Don Quixote (2.8%) or Mist (2.5%), and close to Les Misérables at B1 (4.8%). The reason is the subject: war brings words like regimiento, trincheras, campesinos, and nearly a fifth of the long words are names, Margarita, Madariaga, Argensola, Tchernoff. The grammar stays within A2: the story runs in the pretérito indefinido and imperfecto, much of it is dialogue in «» quotes, and the subjunctive is rare, in phrases like como si huyeran or antes de que sea tarde. The original in the catalog is C1: 15 words per sentence and one long word in eight (13.1%). The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters has 9-12 words per sentence. Hence A2, at the top of the level because of the vocabulary. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 9 858
- words
- 10
- words in an average sentence
- 2-3
- hours of reading
MovaReader. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Paris, July 1914. Julio Desnoyers, a young Argentine and grandson of the rich rancher Madariaga, is back from Buenos Aires with money to marry Margarita Laurier, who is divorcing her engineer husband. On a German liner he watched the passengers drink to friendship with France and, a few days later, cheer the coming war. Then the book goes back in time: to 1870, when Julio’s father Marcelo fled France and its war for Argentina, to old Madariaga, the “centaur” of the pampas, and to his two daughters, one married to a Frenchman and the other to a German. Now the family lives in Paris, a cousin from Berlin promises that the German army will be in the city within four weeks, and their Russian neighbour Tchernoff speaks of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. War breaks out: Marcelo goes to save his château on the Marne, Margarita trains as a nurse, and Julio, who until now has only danced the tango, has to decide whose war this is. What becomes of a family split by the front line, the book tells.
Compare two places
Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis
X. Junto a la gruta
. . . , . , , . .
Choose an underlined word.
Why the present tense here
The whole book is told in the past tenses, but Tchernoff retells the Bible vision in the present, as if reading it aloud: se rompe, sale, viene, aparece. Se rompe el segundo sello means “the second seal breaks”, with no one named as breaking it. Guerra, Hambre and Muerte take capitals because they are the riders’ names: War, Famine and Death.
Who uno is and what se does
Se le mostró: the war “showed itself to him”; se points back to the war, le to Julio. In como se habla de la muerte cuando uno está sano both words are impersonal: se habla is “people speak”, uno is “one, anybody”. Había hablado (pluscuamperfecto) steps one stage back: this is how Julio had talked until that day.
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 I, where Julio answers the German councillor Después no puedo pedirle que seamos amigos sin devolvérselo: translating the whole sentence untangles the pronouns in devolvérselo and the subjunctive after pedir que.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
Spanish books A1 Earlier The Cabin La barraca Another book by the same author C1 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis The complete novel this retelling comes from: C1, about 130,900 words, 15 words per sentence, and one word in eight has 9 letters or more. Once you know the plot, the original is easier to take chapter by chapter, with word translation. C1 Les Misérables Los miserables Another big novel in which French history breaks into private lives, up to a Paris barricade in 1832, also retold by MovaReader but at B1: 11 words per sentence, 4.8% long words, about 13,400 words. A natural next step. B1
All books at this level
Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
This is a MovaReader adaptation, not the original text: Vicente Blasco Ibáñez’s novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis, 1916) retold in simple Spanish in 14 chapters, about 9,900 words instead of 130,900. All three parts of the novel remain, in their order: the meeting in a Paris garden, Madariaga on his Argentine ranch, the cousin from Berlin, the vision of the four horsemen, the retreat, Lourdes, the Germans in the château of Villeblanche and the Battle of the Marne. The political and philosophical passages (pan-Germanism, Kultur, quotations from German professors) are cut right down, a few minor characters and episodes are left out, and father and son are called Marcelo and Julio instead of sharing the surname Desnoyers. The complete novel is in the catalog as a separate book, at C1.
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 mostly words of war such as trincheras, bayonetas or ametralladoras.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. Sentences here are short, 10 words on average, so you will rarely need a whole one translated, except where the subjunctive appears, as in the German councillor’s Hay que hacer la guerra ahora, antes de que sea tarde. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
About 2-3 hours, reading with translations of new words rather than at a native speaker’s pace. The 14 chapters average about 700 words: the shortest is IX, 527 words, the longest I, 967, so a chapter takes roughly 6 to 18 minutes.
Where does the text get easier?
The difficulty is even: each of the 14 chapters averages 9-12 words per sentence. Only the long words vary a little: in chapter III, about Julio’s childhood on the ranch, every 34th word is a long one (2.9%), and in chapter V, where the cousin from Berlin lectures on Kultur, every 19th (5.2%).
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes, once you sign in, the reader remembers your place and the words you opened. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example VI, where Tchernoff tells of the four horsemen.