I. Capítulo 1
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A Madrid novel about independence, for B2
Tristana Tristana
Benito Pérez Galdós, 1922
Benito Pérez Galdós’s complete novel of 1892, not an adaptation. In the catalogue it is B2: about 52,500 words and 17 words per sentence on average. 29 chapters about Tristana, a young woman in Madrid under the guardianship of the ageing don Lope, who wants to be independent and falls in love with a painter; the opening chapters are the densest, the middle runs on letters and dialogue.
- B2
- 52 547 words
- 9-15 hours
Will this text hold?
B1
Earlier
At B1 chapters I-X will be slow going: sentences of about 24 words, many bookish words and don Lope’s grand speeches full of old turns of phrase.
B1B2
This text
You can manage it at B2: from chapter XI on, letters and dialogue come in sentences of about 14 words, and the opening chapters can be read slowly, translating single words.
Check this passageC1
With room to spare
At C1 the novel reads freely; only the ornate opening chapters and don Lope’s irony may still slow you down.
Start readingThe average sentence has 17 words, and one word in ten has 9 letters or more (9.7%), just under the 9.9% where the catalogue’s C1 begins. For comparison, Doña Perfecta averages 15 words with 9.8% long words and Misericordia 18 with 8.8%, both B2, while Galdós’s Trafalgar, at 24 words and 9.9%, is C1. The difficulty here is uneven: chapters I-X average about 24 words per sentence with 11% long words, chapters XI-XXVI about 14 with 8.7%, where letters and dialogue take over, and the last three chapters about 22. Hence B2. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 52 547
- words
- 17
- words in an average sentence
- 9-15
- hours of reading
- 1922
- Librería de los Sucesores de Hernando
Librería de los Sucesores de Hernando, 1922. Project Gutenberg
What it is about, without the ending
Tristana is a young orphan in Madrid’s Chamberí district. Don Lope Garrido, an ageing gentleman of grand manners and a dwindling fortune, has taken her in and rules over her with the authority of a guardian and the jealousy of a master. She dreams of a life of her own, with a trade and a will of her own, and the wish only grows when she meets Horacio, a young painter. How their love turns out, and what happens to Tristana and to don Lope, is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Tristana
X. Capítulo 10
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Choose an underlined word.
Find the verb first
Galdós piles clauses onto one subject. Look for the verb that carries the sentence: here “se pasaba la vida en…” (he spent his life in…), and everything after it is a list of where. Translate that skeleton first, then add the details.
Diminutives with an edge
Galdós uses diminutives such as tamañitas and saliditas with irony, not tenderness: they shrink what Tristana fears and what she does in secret. Read them as a tone, not as a size.
Where the text gets harder
I-Xlonger sentences
XI-XXVIletters and dialogue: shorter sentences
XXVII-XXIXlonger sentences again
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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The book opens with one long sentence, “En el populoso barrio de Chamberí, más cerca del Depósito de Aguas que de Cuatro Caminos, vivía, no ha muchos años, un hidalgo de buena estampa y nombre peregrino”, where the verb vivía arrives only after two place names, so translating the whole sentence in Reader keeps the thread.
ReaderIf this book is not the one
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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 29 chapters, first published in 1892. The reader follows the text of the 1922 edition (Librería de los Sucesores de Hernando, Madrid), taken from Project Gutenberg. The cover shown here is the title page of the 1892 first edition.
Is there an audiobook?
Tristana 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 bookish words such as trincas or gabela.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. In this novel it helps most in the opening chapters, where sentences average about 24 words, for example “Sin ninguna ocupación profesional, el buen D. Lope, que había gozado en mejores tiempos de una regular fortuna…”. Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novel takes about 9-15 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Chapters run from about 800 to 2,600 words, so one or two make an evening.
Where does the text get easier?
From chapter XI. Chapters I-X are the densest, about 24 words per sentence on average. From XI to XXVI letters and dialogue bring it down to about 14, and the last three chapters rise again to about 22.
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 where you left off. Any of the 29 chapters also opens from the contents on this page.