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Tale · A way to begin
Cuentos frágiles
Not translated into English
Fabio Fiallo · 1908
Synopsis
Eighteen short tales of love and fantasy, from the kiss to vengeance, from the little countess to the lion tamer. In El busto de mármol, the most discussed, a man consumed by groundless jealousy suspects his wife, Margarita, and his closest friend, the painter Tristán, whom he regarded as a brother, and feeds his suspicions on the presence of a marble bust in the house, mingling the investigation with an examination of his own fears.
Context
The book was published in 1908 in New York, when its author was consul there, five years after a first collection of verse. Acento notes, of the best-known of these tales, the irony with which it treats a serious subject and the way jealousy is conducted in it like an investigation. A second edition appeared in 1929 in the Biblioteca Rubén Darío; an annotated edition by José Enrique García later combined it with another collection by the author.
Who it is for
In Spanish; short, elegant stories, dated in tone but sparing in irony, best read one at a time.
Prizes and reception
The best-known prose book by its author, reissued in 1929 and then in an annotated edition.
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