I. Capítulo 1
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A provincial novel of irony for C1
His Only Son Su único hijo
Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”, 1890
The complete novel by Leopoldo Alas “Clarín” from the 1890 Fernando Fé edition, not an adaptation. In the catalog it is C1: about 89,200 words and 23 words per sentence on average. 16 chapters about Bonifacio Reyes, a gentle clerk and flute player, his domineering wife Emma and an opera company; the sentences are long and winding, and one word in ten has 9 letters or more.
- C1
- 89 167 words
- 15-25 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the short scenes and the dialogue are within reach, but the long paragraphs of chapters I-XIII, with sentences of about 26 words and stacked asides, will need whole-sentence translation and patience.
B2C1
This text
You can manage it at C1: long periods and rare words slow you down, but the story carries you, and chapters XIV-XVI, at about 18 words per sentence, read noticeably faster.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the book reads freely, and you can enjoy Clarín’s irony and the gap between Bonifacio’s romantic dreams and his daily life without translating.
Start readingThe average sentence has 23 words, and one word in ten has 9 letters or more (9.9%), exactly the catalog’s threshold for C1. For comparison, Alas’s La Regenta is B2 at 19 words per sentence and his collection El Señor y lo demás son cuentos is B2 at 21, while Los pazos de Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazán is C1 at 20. The difficulty is uneven: chapters I-XIII average about 26 words per sentence (chapter II about 35, chapter XIII about 33), chapters XIV-XVI about 18. Long periods, ironic asides and 19th-century vocabulary add work. Hence C1. This is the catalog’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 89 167
- words
- 23
- words in an average sentence
- 15-25
- hours of reading
- 1890
- Librería de Fernando Fé
Librería de Fernando Fé, 1890. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Emma Valcárcel, a spoiled only daughter, fell in love at fifteen with her father’s clerk, Bonifacio Reyes, and after a failed elopement and years in a convent she gets him as a husband. Bonifacio, whom everyone calls Bonis, is gentle, sentimental, mad about music and no good at any steady work; at home he gives in to Emma’s whims. His escape is the theatre of the provincial town, where an opera company performs: a keen flute player, he is allowed to stand in the wings and watches the soprano Serafina Gorgheggi, dreaming of an ideal love. What this love costs him, and what the title promises, is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Su único hijo
X. Capítulo 10
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Choose an underlined word.
Read the list of traits in chunks
Clarín paints Bonifacio with a string of adjectives separated by commas: pacífico, suave, moroso, muy sentimental. Read it in chunks and do not stop on every word; the portrait of a gentle, dreamy clerk comes through even if one or two words stay unclear.
Find the main verb in a long sentence
In “No se le pasó por las mientes que se pudiera necesitar al médico…” look first for the main verb (no se le pasó), then for the clause with pudiera. The long stretch after “pero Dios sabía” is only Bonis imagining the worst, so you can read it at a faster pace.
Where the text gets harder
I-XIIIlong, winding sentences
XIV-XVIshorter sentences
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
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Early on, one sentence lists Bonifacio’s looks with no verb in sight, “Era guapo a lo romántico, de estatura regular, rostro ovalado pálido, de hermosa cabellera castaña…”: translating the whole sentence in Reader shows how the portrait is built.
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Before you read
Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s abridgement: Leopoldo Alas “Clarín”’s complete novel in all 16 chapters. The reader follows the 1890 edition (Librería de Fernando Fé, Madrid) in the text from Project Gutenberg (ebook 17341).
Is there an audiobook?
His Only Son 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 rare or old-fashioned words such as moroso or parroquiano.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps most in long descriptive sentences such as “Era guapo a lo romántico, de estatura regular, rostro ovalado pálido, de hermosa cabellera castaña…”, and in chapters II and XIII, where sentences average about 35 and 33 words. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 15-25 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Chapters are long, from about 2,000 to 10,700 words, so plan one chapter, or half of a long one, per sitting.
Where does the text get easier?
Only in part. Chapters I-XIII average about 26 words per sentence, with the longest sentences in chapters II and XIII; chapters XIV-XVI are easier, at about 18 words per sentence. Chapter VI is also lighter, at about 15.
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 16 chapters also opens from the contents on this page.