I. Crisálidas
, , , , , .
, , , , , , , , , , , .
A novel of Santander fishermen, for B2
Sotileza Sotileza
José María de Pereda, 1906
José María de Pereda’s complete novel of 1885, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is B2: about 114,900 words and 25 words per sentence on average. 29 chapters about the fishermen’s quarter of Santander and Silda, an orphan nicknamed Sotileza; the speech is full of sea words and Cantabrian turns.
- B2
- 114 884 words
- 19-32 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 the long chapters will be slow going: sentences of 40 words and more, old spellings such as á for a, and sea terms you will translate word by word.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: the lighter chapters (V, XV, XX, XXVII) run at 15-18 words per sentence, and the dense ones can be read slowly, translating single words and the odd whole sentence.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novel reads freely; only the nautical vocabulary and the Cantabrian turns of the seamen still send you to a dictionary.
Start readingThe average sentence has 25 words, level with other B2 books of the catalog such as El buscón (23) and Martín Fierro (25), and below María (29) and Bécquer’s legends (32). One word in thirteen has 9 letters or more (7.5%), short of the one in ten that marks the C1 books. The difficulty is uneven: chapters III, VII and XXII run at 40-47 words per sentence, while chapters V, XV, XX and XXVII stay at 15-18. Sea terms and Cantabrian words add work, but the sentences, not the vocabulary, set the pace. Hence B2. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 114 884
- words
- 25
- words in an average sentence
- 19-32
- hours of reading
- 1906
- Viuda e hijos de Manuel Tello
Viuda e hijos de Manuel Tello, 1906. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
In the fishermen’s quarter of Santander, the seaman tío Mechelín and his wife Sidora take in Silda, a girl left an orphan, and raise her among nets, lines and boats; the quarter nicknames her Sotileza, the word for the fine line that ends a fishing cord. She grows up beside Cleto, the rough lad Muergo and Andrés, the son of a rich shipowner who is drawn to the sea, while a poor priest, Padre Apolinar, gathers the quarter’s ragged children in his room and the guild of the seafarers rules its affairs. How their paths cross and where they end up is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Sotileza
XVI. Un día de pesca
... ... . , . . , , . ¡ !... ¡ !
Choose an underlined word.
The subject comes last
The sentence opens with a long list (the table, the chairs, the umbrella, half a dozen ragged children) and the verb trataba de pasearse arrives only near the end, followed by its subject, un cura de sotana remendada. Look for the verb first, then ask who does it. Also expect Pereda’s old accents: á is a, and tí is ti.
A scolding that praises
The mother’s voice is ironic: ¡Dará gusto ver...! (“it will be a joy to see...”) and ¡Buena educación y buenos modales aprenderás á su lado! say the opposite of what she means about Muergo. Read the dots as the breaths of a nagging flow of orders, and the exclamations as sarcasm, not as praise.
Chapters
- ICrisálidas
- IIDe la Maruca á San Martín
- IIIDónde había caído la huérfana de Mules
- IVDónde la deseaban
- VCómo y por qué fué recogida
- VIUn cabildo
- VIILos «marinos» de entonces
- VIIIEl armador de la «Montañesa»
- IXLos entusiasmos de Andrés
- XDel patache y otros particulares
- XILa familia de don Venancio, dos puntapiés, un botón de asa y un mote
- XIIMariposas
- XIIILa órbita de Andrés
- XIVEl diablo en escena
- XVEl paño de lágrimas
- XVIUn día de pesca
- XVIILa noche de aquel día
- XVIIIIr por lana...
- XIXEl perejil en la frente
- XXEl idilio de Cleto
- XXIVarios asuntos y muergo de gala
- XXIILos de arriba y los de abajo
- XXIIILas hembras de Mocejón
- XXIVFrutos de aquel escándalo
- XXVOtras consecuencias
- XXVIMás consecuencias
- XXVIIOtra consecuencia que era de temerse
- XXVIIILa más grave de todas las consecuencias
- XXIXEn qué paró todo ello
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 one sentence runs 65 words and keeps its subject for the end: translating the whole of “trataba de pasearse, con grandísimas dificultades, un cura de sotana remendada” in Reader shows who is doing what.
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: José María de Pereda’s complete novel, all 29 chapters, with the author’s dedication to his Santander contemporaries and its 1888 postscript. The text follows the fourth edition (Viuda e hijos de Manuel Tello, Madrid, 1906, volume IX of his complete works) from Project Gutenberg; the novel first appeared in 1885. The author’s own list of technical sea words printed after the story is not included.
Is there an audiobook?
Sotileza 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 sea terms and local words such as chumbao (the lead weight of a fishing line) or sotileza itself, the fine line at the end of a cord.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most in the long chapters III, VII and XXII (40-47 words per sentence), and in sentences like the 65-word one of chapter I, where trataba de pasearse, con grandísimas dificultades, un cura de sotana remendada keeps its subject for the end. 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. Chapters run from about 2,600 to 6,600 words, so one chapter is a long evening’s reading.
Where does the text get easier?
It gets easier in stretches, not steadily. The densest chapters are III, VII and XXII (40-47 words per sentence); the lightest are V, XV, XX and XXVII (15-18). If a chapter wears you out, a lighter one is usually not far off.
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 29 chapters also opens from the contents on this page, for example chapter I, where the story starts after the dedication.