I. Capítulo 1
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A novel of a dismissed clerk, for B2
Miau Miau
Benito Pérez Galdós, 1907
Benito Pérez Galdós’s novel of 1888, complete and not an adaptation, in the 1907 edition. In the catalog it is B2: about 96,700 words and 17 words per sentence on average. 44 chapters about Ramón Villaamil, a dismissed civil servant in Madrid, and his family, nicknamed las Miau; the narrator’s long periods are the hard part, while the scenes with dialogue read faster.
- B2
- 96 667 words
- 16-27 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the narrator’s long periods, for example in chapters XIII and XIV (about 27 words per sentence), will be slow going, and old forms like quedóse and hallábase need unpacking.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: most chapters are scenes and dialogue at about 12-20 words per sentence, and the long narrator’s passages can be read slowly, translating single words.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novel reads freely; only the period spelling (á for a, fué for fue), the popular speech of the characters and the odd long aside slow you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 17 words, between Doña Perfecta and Marianela (15) and Misericordia (18), all of them B2 novels by Galdós in the catalog. One word in ten (9.5%) has 9 letters or more: just under the 9.9% where the catalog starts C1, as in Trafalgar (24 words per sentence, 9.9%), and below Doña Perfecta (9.8%), which is also B2. The difficulty varies by chapter: XX and XL average about 12 words per sentence, XIII and XIV about 27. Hence B2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 96 667
- words
- 17
- words in an average sentence
- 16-27
- hours of reading
- 1907
- Librería de Perlado, Páez y Compañía
Librería de Perlado, Páez y Compañía, 1907. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
In Madrid, Ramón Villaamil, an honest civil servant with long service in the Ministry of Finance, has been dismissed and spends his days waiting for a post that would put him back on the payroll. At home his wife Pura, his daughters Milagros and Abelarda and his grandson Luisito keep up appearances on very little money. The women of the family are nicknamed las Miau, because in the gallery of the Teatro Real they look like cats, and the nickname reaches the boy in the school yard. Whether Villaamil gets his post back, and what the waiting does to him and to his family, is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Miau and the old spelling
The boys throw stones and shout Miau, a cat’s meow, and the word becomes the nickname that gives the novel its title. In this 1907 edition the preposition a is still written á (Á las cuatro, á la calle), so do not read it as a different word. Pies, para qué os quiero is a set phrase for running away: “feet, what do I need you for”.
Verb first, pronoun after
Quedóse la chica como lela means “the girl was left dumbstruck”: quedóse is se quedó with the pronoun moved behind the verb, the bookish word order of the period, and hallábase works the same way. The long sentence about Abelarda’s caresses is a chain of short clauses, so read it clause by clause until the child’s question lands.
Chapters
- ICapítulo 1
- IICapítulo 2
- IIICapítulo 3
- IVCapítulo 4
- VCapítulo 5
- VICapítulo 6
- VIICapítulo 7
- VIIICapítulo 8
- IXCapítulo 9
- XCapítulo 10
- XICapítulo 11
- XIICapítulo 12
- XIIICapítulo 13
- XIVCapítulo 14
- XVCapítulo 15
- XVICapítulo 16
- XVIICapítulo 17
- XVIIICapítulo 18
- XIXCapítulo 19
- XXCapítulo 20
- XXICapítulo 21
- XXIICapítulo 22
- XXIIICapítulo 23
- XXIVCapítulo 24
- XXVCapítulo 25
- XXVICapítulo 26
- XXVIICapítulo 27
- XXVIIICapítulo 28
- XXIXCapítulo 29
- XXXCapítulo 30
- XXXICapítulo 31
- XXXIICapítulo 32
- XXXIIICapítulo 33
- XXXIVCapítulo 34
- XXXVCapítulo 35
- XXXVICapítulo 36
- XXXVIICapítulo 37
- XXXVIIICapítulo 38
- XXXIXCapítulo 39
- XLCapítulo 40
- XLICapítulo 41
- XLIICapítulo 42
- XLIIICapítulo 43
- XLIVCapítulo 44
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 I the narrator’s opening sentence runs on for many lines: Ningún himno á la libertad, entre los muchos que se han compuesto en las diferentes naciones, es tan hermoso como el que entonan los oprimidos de la enseñanza elemental; translating the whole sentence in Reader keeps the joke about the schoolchildren’s freedom from getting lost.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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: Benito Pérez Galdós’s complete novel, all 44 chapters, first published in 1888. The reader follows the 1907 edition of the Librería de Perlado, Páez y Compañía, Madrid, taken from Project Gutenberg, so it keeps the spelling of the time (á for a, fué for fue).
Is there an audiobook?
Miau 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 of the period or of popular speech such as cuchufletas or zascandileaban.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most with the long descriptive periods, for example the opening of chapter I: Ningún himno á la libertad, entre los muchos que se han compuesto en las diferentes naciones, es tan hermoso como el que entonan los oprimidos de la enseñanza elemental. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 16-27 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Chapters run from about 1,300 to 3,100 words, so one or two make an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
The text is fairly even rather than getting easier. Most chapters run at 14-20 words per sentence; the slowest are XIII and XIV, at about 27, and the quickest are XX and XL, at about 12.
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 44 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example chapter XX.