Excellent reader for beginners. It is broken in to "tense" sections, i.e. present tense, past, subjunctive, etc. I read it outloud with my tutor and it is very helpful. I would highly recommend it.

Classy and elegant are the first words that come to mind upon going through the first few pages of this book.

The book is a selection of stories, or their portions, from the original literature, ranging from the medieval times to the first half of the 20th century, and covering both Spanish and Latin American authors. In addition, it has an occasional interlude consisting of a short poem or a selection of proverbs to tempt the neophite into further exploring the richness of the Spanish language. Being a dual-langage book, the english translation of a story appears on a facing page. I found the translation of varying utility in nailing down the nuances, but the glossary at the end of the book is quite good, so one can read without a separate dictionary at least on the first pass.

The book generally avoids the use of subjunctive and introduces the past tense only in the middle. I had thought that this would make the stories look emaciated, as is the case with a number of such readers I'd seen. Somehow, it does not happen with Flores' delightful volume; if anything, it drives the point home that verbs is not all there is to a language, rich vocabulary and phraseology are just as important, and Flores' selections definitely get across that aspect of the beauty and expressiveness of the Spanish language.

As you work through this reader, more likely than not, your motivation to keep going with your Spanish and, furthermore, to get familiar with its rich literature, will be reinforced tremendously. It will also encourage you to venture into unabridged novels and stories in Spanish sooner than you had thought possible.

Finally, an attractive price helps make it a real winner.

Although there are some mistakes which my mexican tutor vigorously pointed out years ago (Cefiro doesn't mean zephyr in spanish or central america, or something like that),this is more than anything an entertaining book. "Why some people don't figure in the census" is just about as entertaining a short story as any american modernist could write in two pages and the surreal "the Switchman" gives the beginning reader a chance to see a creepy Kafka-like story in spooky, creative, poetic, spanish. Yet with respect especially toward this last story is that right in the middle of the book it stops being a beginners' book. I think that the second half of it should be read in english - depending on the persons' desire or time spent learning the lanuage,- and read in spanish months later: The latter half of the book contains relatively difficult stories with specific and scarcely used words.

Yet at the same time this is really the only good thing about these dual language books: - to reach real foreign literature by means of, in our case, English ; to think that by simply glancing over to the other page one can fool one's inherent english syntax into conjuring itself up as spanish. Will this yield a result?;- expecting the clarifaction of words and relatively obscure grammar(DISIMULAR- to overlook; LO DE MAIZ- the corn affair) which are not simple to suddenly become simple in a first readers' book for beginners is silly. But the stories! This is a fountainhead book one can always go back to for grammar and those words(horquilla - pitchfork, perito-expert, avena - oat) that aren't used daily and a glossary that can be easily found in a BINDING that two angry wrestlers contemplating the book as a wishbone would have trouble unlacing! This book would also, I imagine, help Germans or French who are forced into learning spanish as a third language refresh their memory by dint of the stories' inherent charm and wit.

I recall one story where a women is referred to as "lista" - at MY own slovenly and innocent first glance it was rendered only "smart" or "alive" , but after many rereadings the connotation "sly" reared its head and a simple parable, though yes only a parable, took on a more shrewd and teasing meaning. Any future student of spanish will be faced with false cognates and problems such as those addressed in this book, and yet it solves these problems without being irritating.

The connotations and simple double-meanings I have mentioned permeate the book, and I am sure the meanings of many -especially those of el guardigujas- will continue alluding me for some time to come.

This book should be given to all high school students harboring intentions to study spanish.It is nothing less than a linguistic phenomenon,- a jewel.

This is an excellent anthology of French poetry starting
with the work of Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855)and going
through Paul Valery (1871-1945). The book is in two major
sections: pp. 3-185 contain the English translations
of the French poems (each poet has a section of poems--
and the poets are presented in chronological order of
their birth years); and pp. 289-443 present the same
poems in the same order, but in French).
There is a very good Table of Contents which tells
the titles of the poems and the name and date of
the published edition from which the poem comes, or
the date of the individual poem itself. In the back
of the volume there is an exceptionally good Bibliography
with both General citations, as well as specific essays
on the particular poets. Each poet also has listed
the best edition of his works in that Bibliography.
The poets presented in this anthology along with
very good selections from their poems (and short
biographies) are: Gerard de Nerval; Charles Baudelaire;
Tristan Corbiere; Paul Verlaine; Arthur Rimbaud;
Stephane Mallarme; Jules Laforgue; Guillaume Apollinaire;
and Paul Valery.
The English translations are by various people, some
famous by name, others not so well known to the general
reader. Apparently...not surprisingly...the more
provocative and interesting the poet and his poems,
the more variety of translators and the more engaged
le traducteur et la traductrice travaillent.
My own personal favorites from this anthology are
the poems of De Nerval, Mallarme, and Valery. Here
is a bit of Mallarme's "Weary of Bitter Ease..."
["Las de l'amer repos..."]:
* * * * * * * * *
And by my lamp which knows my agony at last,
Would imitate the Chinese of limpid, delicate bent,
Whose purest ecstasy is but to paint the end
Upon his cups of snow new ravished from the moon
Of some exotic flower that constantly perfumed
His life, transparent flower he smelled in infancy,
Grafting itself upon the soul's blue filigree.
-- Stephane Mallarme. [Trans. Hubert Creekmore]
________________________________________

Frankly speaking, I was not very familiar with French poetry till I bought a copy of this book recently in Paris. This book, which was last published in 1958, has been out of print till now. In fact, book was in the wish list from my brother who is a professor onf English in India and who read a copy of this anthology long time ago. According to him, it was the best anthology of French poetry he had ever read. After reading some of the poems, I not only discovered the beauty of French poetry, but also could understand why my brother has been after this book for a long time. Patty Smith, who wrote the introduction to the new publication of the anthology, like my brother, read this book long time ago when she got a copy of the book on her table by stroke of luck in 1964. She now writes, "I must admit that I pocketed the book as my own, and it bacame the bible of my life. Edited by the aptly name Angel Flores, this anthology introduced me to some of the greatest poets in French literature .... It is my pleasure now to reintroduce this humble yet significant volume, so long out of print, to you now. And may I use this as an opportunity to salute and thank that unidentified soul who left this book upon my table in 1964."

French poetry has influenced not only people like Patty Smith or by brother in India and many throughout the world, but it has also influenced famous poets like T. S. eliot and many others. I am very happy to see that this valuable anthology of French poetry has now been published again. Besides my brother, I am also happy for me who is not deep into literature for living, because it has introduced to me the beauty of French poetry for the first time. When you read poets like Baudellaire in lines as follows, you can immediately see that attraction of French poetry.

"Be drunk, always. Nothing else matters; this is our sole concern. To ease the pain as Time's dread burden weighs down upon your shoulders and crushes you to eart, you must be drunk without respite.

Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry or with virtue, as yopu please. But be drunk." (Baudellaire "Be Drunk")

Or in," Life is hospital where every patient longs desperately to change his bed. ..." (Baudellaire "Anyehere Out of this World") etc

The anthology contain not only famous poets like Baudellaire, but all the important modern French poets from Nerval to Valery. Now I know that like French wine the book has addicted me with French poetry. I think everyone who like poetry should have a copy of this valuable anthology of French poetry in his or her personal collection. Rajen Barua, Houston

I don't know what aspirin the previous reviewer is taking if he thinks this is an intermediate book. A case in point is simply Cervantes' use of the verb Correr, which in THE POWER OF THE BLOOD actually means to be ashamed and yet in present day Chile means to have elongated sex. So much for modern language...
What makes this a great book is the stories and their ability, in my mind, to last not only in a literary sense but in a grammatical sense ONLY THROUGH REREADING AND APING THE ACTUAL TRANSLATOR.
Would we thoroughly shove Emile Bronte or James Fenimore Cooper down the modern throats of an "intermediate" spanish student? I should hope not (needst though consult the lavoratory) and I personally lost a lot of time in the grammatical anachronisms of this book. The casual page facing page only works for mathematicians and/or linguists.

Yet that isn't the point. The point is that the stories are great in English and can be referred to in Spanish sometime in the future. Like Angel Flores'majestic Anthology ranging from the 16th to the 20th century of hispanic literature this book grazes, yes, but never touches, the original translations. To even think that an intermediate student could casually glimpse from one page to another is comical, especially in the case of Cela, where the idioms are so predominant that grammar and purposely misplaced clauses becomes subordinate to the facing pages.

A wonderful book,( though not nearly as wonderful as Flores' anthology of poetry), this book is meant to be read in English. The Spanish is deliberately hard - it is after all literature (ie Unamuno! "We are all sick animals", Cervantes! I don't know if Dulcinea yet exists- I only think of her as she needs be)- and is meant to be put on the backburner until the student achieves the level of translation and richness of words the actual translators are striving to get at, nothing more.

This weird trend of casually looking from one page stacked with subordinate clauses and idioms and connotations to the other with the speculation that any of if will be SYNTHESIZED is a disturbing trend in self-learning and nothing more.

This book includes several excellent stories by many of the finest Spanish authors starting from the 16th century to the 20th. I recommend it highly for the intermediate Spanish student.

When I started reading book I had to regularly refer to the english page for a translation. At the end of the book, I seldom need to check the translation.

I assume that the stories written in the 16th and 17th centuries were re-written to update them into current Spanish, as I would think the older Spanish would be much more difficult to understand. As a result, this made the stories easy to read at the same time I could appreciate the skill of the writers.

For a student of the English Literature who does not happen to be in full command of the French Language, this book comes as a handy blessing: on the one hand, it is compact and thus, unlike other anthologies, you may grab it with you wherever you are. On the other, it contains poems from mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century: Nerval, Baudelaire, Corbiere, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarme, Laforgue, Appolinaire and Valery - from twenty to forty poems by each, including _El Desdichado_, excrepts from _Les Fleurs du Mal_, _Poemes Saturnien_, _Ohpelia_ and more. Each poet merits a brief, glimpsing introduction, and a bibliography for further interest. What's more, every single poem appears both in English translation and in its original French version. Strongly recommended. Worth both a general reader's pleasure, and a student's curious toil.

This book has been very helpful to me in studying Spanish-I especially like this book because it is translated into English as well. Even if you're a beginner you will understand it as well.I highly recommend this book to others who are studying this language.

Ugly stories about ugly people. That about sums it up. Perhaps that was the author's intent? Beats me. So much ugliness in such a small space is hard to endure, which is why I give less than five stars. Now Unamuno was bright and could write, and that is why I give more that one star.

Unamuno was a genius who is underrated as a thinker, philosopher, author, and political critic. His use of the novella as a vehicle for his philosophy and existential thought should put him in every discussion about the likes of Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sarte, Martin Heidigger, and Soren Kierkegaard. These three novellas give us a view, not only of the Spanish mind, but also of what a serious, learned man (who was incidentally Basque) could see as flaws and existential dilemmas in Spanish as well as European culture. Each of the three novellas give insight into the gender roles of men and women in turn of the century Spanish society as well as very real issues of what a man or women should be in a world where title, pride and wealth seem to be more important than acting in an ethical manner.

In the prologue to this trio of novellas, Unamuno declares that the work might be more aptly dubbed "four exemplary novels." "For this prologue is also a novel... the novel of my novels," he adds. And, indeed, I believe him. The prologue itself is wildly entertaining and, by far, the most striking segment of the piece. In some fifteen pages, Unamuno presents hilarious, yet profound (as is his custom -- I love that about him) commentary on the novel as artform and ontological playground. The three stories that follow are all gripping in their own ways. Dos Madres is an Unamunian version of the tale of King Solomon and the bickering mothers. El Marques de Lumbria presents the story of an isolated household that is somewhat reminiscent of Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba. Nada Menos que Todo Un Hombre stars Alejandro, a tough guy, a regular Alexander the Great, who isn't really as strong as he appears. All of the novels are tied together by a common thread of power play and self-doubt among their characters. And the result is a cohesive bundle of words that is truly exemplary.

Many good ESL games and activities.

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