A Second Spanish Reader

Geared toward advanced beginners, this dual-language volume offers the convenient, accessible format of English translations on pages facing the matching Spanish text. It introduces such authors as Lope de Vega, Cervantes, Alarcón, Unamuno, and Darío, and such works as El buscón, Cartas marruecas, El estudiante de Salamanca, and Santa. Contents include plays, lyric and narrative verse, and prose of many kinds — fiction, philosophy, autobiography, and more — for a generous sampling of the Spanish language's extraordinarily diverse and rich literary history.


The selections begin at around 1550, at the outset of the 100 years known as the Golden Age. Excerpts from the era's major genres and authors include the works of three prominent playwrights, plus pastoral and picaresque novels, religious meditations, and a report from the New World. Three outstanding exponents of the Enlightenment appear here, in addition to contributions from the major Romantic playwrights and poets, several Realist and Naturalist novelists, and the pillars of the Generation of 1898. One-third of the selections are the works of Spanish-American writers. Accurate and up to date, this new translation by Stanley Appelbaum features a detailed Introduction with background on all of the writers and their works.