Pepita Jimenez A Novel By Juan Valera

Juan Valera y Alcalá-Galiano (1824-1905), one of 19th-century Spain's most well known authors, had a career in the diplomatic service with postings in Europe and the Americas. A serious student of his own and foreign literatures, Valera wrote novels, short stories, essays and literary criticism.

Pepita Jiménez depicts the gradual realization by a young seminarian of the empty vanity of his vocation, while he falls in love on the eve of his ordination. The novel gives a view of rural life in the Andalusian region of Spain. The story touches on themes of physical versus spiritual love and finding one's true path in life.

Pepita Jiménez depicts the gradual realization by a young seminarian of the empty vanity of his vocation, while he falls in love on the eve of his ordination. The novel gives a view of rural life in the Andalusian region of Spain. The story touches on themes of physical versus spiritual love and finding one's true path in life.

Excerpt from Pepita Jiménez I wish to acknowledge with pleasure a number of valuable suggestions received from Mr. Frederick W. Morrison and Mr. J. A. Ray, both of the United States Naval Academy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Juan Valera y Alcalá-Galiano (1824-1905), one of 19th-century Spain's most well known authors, had a career in the diplomatic service with postings in Europe and the Americas. A serious student of his own and foreign literatures, Valera wrote novels, short stories, essays and literary criticism. Fluent in a number of languages, he also translated Longus's Daphne and Chloe from Greek into Spanish. The unifying thread of his creative work is "art for art's sake," that is, beauty as the end and purpose of imaginative literature, an ideal epitomised by Pepita Jiménez , long considered one of the best half dozen novels of 19th-century Spain. When it was first published in 1874, Pepita Jiménez became an instant success. Translations abound, as do the number of editions, upwards of fifteen, many of them annotated, some of them illustrated. It tells of Luis de Vargas, a devout twenty-two-year-old seminarian who has come home to visit with his father before entering the priesthood. The storyline unfolds when he meets a comely twenty-year-old widow named Pepita Jiménez and has his religious calling put to the test. On the heels of a fictitious prologue, Valera gives the reader multiple perspectives. The first part of the novel is epistolary in form, letters that Luis writes to the Dean, who is both his uncle and his mentor at the seminary, and everything - people, places, and activities - is filtered through his eyes. The second part reverts to the traditional all-seeing narrator of the realist novel, while the third consists of letters that Pedro de Vargas, Luis's father, writes to his brother the Dean.