Sketches of Each Novella

The variety of stories in this collection of novellas by Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, is impressive. The first is about a young nobleman who falls in love with a beautiful gypsy girl but must become a gypsy in order to be with her. The next is about a love triangle set in the the Barbary Slave Trade, in which over a million Europeans were enslaved by North African Muslim pirates between 1500-1800, Cervantes himself being perhaps the most famous victim. Another is about a Spanish girl raised in England who is granted an audience with the Queen but must hide her Catholic faith from the Protestant authorities. Another is about a gang of child thieves that operates almost like a religious order. Another is about a lawyer who thinks he's literally made of glass. Another is about a young woman who gets raped without seeing the man's face only to eventually fall in love with him years later after their son's likeness to his father is recognized by the son's paternal grandfather. Another is about a woman disguised as a man who is looking for the lover who abandoned her after taking her virginity only to find that a second woman has also been seduced by him. Another is about a jealous old man who marries a beautiful teenager and showers her with material wealth only to loose her to the love of a younger rival. Another is about a beautiful scullery maid who discovers that, although abandoned by her mother who was raped, she is actually of noble birth. Another is about a Spaniard studying in Italy who is given a mysterious bundle in the street only to discover that it contains a newborn child from an important family. Another is literally a dialogue between two dogs! The "Dialogue of the Dogs" is embedded within another novella, "The Deceitful Marriage," which is about a man who is duped by a gold-digging prostitute. Each novella is meant to delight the reader while being morally edifying in one way or another, and for this reason, among others, they are called "exemplary." They also show different aspects of late 16th and early 17th century Spain. The stories and dialogue seem Shakespearean, although it could be the other way around. Interestingly, the two authors died on the same calendar date, although days apart, as Spain had already switched to Gregorian calendar, while England was still using the Julian.

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