Cervantes’s last novel, for C2 readers

The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

Name: The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda
Author: Miguel de Cervantes

Miguel de Cervantes, 1920

Miguel de Cervantes’s complete novel, published in 1617 after his death and read here in the Calpe edition of 1920, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C2: about 143,000 words and 48 words per sentence on average. Four books and 79 chapters of shipwrecks, captivities and pilgrimage from the northern seas to Rome, opening with Cervantes’s dedication to the Count of Lemos and his prologue.

C2
142 980 words
24-40 hours

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Will this text hold?

C1

Earlier

At C1 sentences of about 48 words with clauses stacked inside one another, old forms like desta, dél, fué and dió, and the vocabulary of 17th-century romance will slow you down; plan to translate whole sentences.

C2

This text

You can manage it at C2: the book is evenly demanding, so it reads well a chapter or two at a time, tapping the odd word (mazmorra, presa) and translating the longest sentences whole.

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The average sentence has 48 words, as in Novelas ejemplares (49) and more than in Don Quijote (43), the other complete Cervantes books at C2 in the catalog; no C1 book there goes above 31. One word in twelve has 9 letters or more (8.5%), a little more often than in those two (7.0%). The difficulty is even: chapter averages run from about 28 to about 67 words per sentence, and no stretch of the book reads as a rest. Periods of several clauses, verbs held back, old forms like desta, dél, fué and dió, and the vocabulary of 17th-century romance add the rest. Hence C2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.

142 980: words
48: words in an average sentence
24-40: hours of reading
1920: Calpe

Calpe, 1920. Wikisource

What it is about, without the ending

The novel opens on a barbarian island, where the young Periandro, hands tied behind his back, is hauled out of the dungeon in which the barbarians keep their captives. He and Auristela, who pass as brother and sister, get away and set out across the northern seas with a changing band of companions: a Spaniard who lived among the barbarians, a man from Siena, a father and his daughter. A prince and a king fall for Auristela, jealousy and rivalry follow, and everyone they meet has a story to tell. Then the pilgrimage turns south, through Portugal, Spain and France towards Rome. Who the two really are, and how the journey ends, is not revealed here.

Compare two places

Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda

I. Libro primero. Capítulo primero

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XLVI. Libro tercero. Capítulo II

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Choose an underlined word.

Wikisource

Look for the verb first

Cervantes often puts the verb up front. “Voces daba el bárbaro Corsicurbo” is just “the barbarian Corsicurbo was shouting”, and in “Haz que… salga acá arriba… aquel mancebo” the subject comes last. Find verb and subject before translating the rest.

Speech verbs split the sentence

In the rider’s speech the narrator’s “dijo, pues, el caballero” is slipped between two dashes in the middle of the sentence and only says who is speaking. Read the speech straight through, skipping it, then go back to see who said it.

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Chapters

Translation while you read

The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.

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In book three, chapter III, the sentence that begins “Preñada estaba la encina” runs to 76 words of semicolons and parallel clauses: translating it whole in Reader keeps the thread from slipping away.

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If this book is not the one

Spanish books C1 Earlier Don Quixote El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha Another book by the same author C2

All books at this level

Before you read

Is this the original or a learner adaptation?

It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: Miguel de Cervantes’s complete novel, all 79 chapters of its four books, with his dedication to the Count of Lemos and the prologue. The text follows the 1920 Calpe edition (Colección Universal, Madrid) as transcribed on Spanish Wikisource, with modernised spelling; the novel first appeared in 1617, a year after the author’s death. The cover here is the title page of that 1617 edition by Juan de la Cuesta.

Is there an audiobook?

The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda 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 old or rare words such as mazmorra or asímismo.

Can I translate a whole sentence?

Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most with the longest sentences, for example the one that opens book three, chapter III: “Preñada estaba la encina…”, 76 words. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.

How many hours does it take?

The whole novel takes about 24-40 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. The 79 chapters run from about 600 to 3,700 words, so one or two make an evening; the dedication and the prologue sit at the start of chapter I.

Where does the text get easier?

It stays even. Sentences average 48 words and chapter averages run from about 28 to about 67, with no stretch that stands out as lighter. The prologue, a short lively anecdote about a student on a donkey who catches up with the author on the road, is a good first page to test your reading before chapter I.

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 79 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example the first chapter of book three.

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