Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Der Dreispitz
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love light, quick comedies with strong plots, mistaken identities and clever revenge, and anyone curious about Spanish village life in the age of Napoleon.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
The Three-Cornered Hat is a short comic novel by the Spanish writer Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, first published in 1874. Alarcón took an old Andalusian folk tale, the kind sung and told in country taverns, and turned it into a polished story full of wit and mischief. It is set in the early 1800s, in a sunny corner of southern Spain, in a place where a mill, a magistrate and a marriage collide.
The book gives you a small cast and a sharp plot. A clever miller and his beautiful wife live happily, until the town's chief official decides he wants her. What follows is a night of tricks, mistaken identities and badly judged jealousy. You also get a warm, teasing portrait of village life, where everyone knows everyone and a hat can tell a whole story. Let us begin with the couple at the mill, because everything starts with them.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A happy couple lives at the millFree
- 2A powerful man with a roving eye
- 3A night of schemes begins
- 4Jealousy turns clever people reckless
- 5Village wit stands up to authority
- 6A tall tale told with a smile
Punkt 1 von 6
A happy couple lives at the mill
The story opens in Andalusia, in southern Spain, in the years when Charles IV is on the throne. A narrator who loves local lore introduces the miller, known as Uncle Lucas. Lucas is short, rather ugly, and slightly hunched. Yet he is quick, funny and full of country sense, and everyone who meets him enjoys his talk.
His wife is Frasquita, who comes from Navarre in the north. She is tall, strong and beautiful, with a warm laugh and a sharp tongue when she needs one. She is also loyal. Many people in town wonder how such a woman ended up with such a husband, and the narrator enjoys that question.
The answer is easy to see once you spend an evening at the mill. The couple tease each other, work side by side, and laugh at the world. Their home sits outside the town, near a stream, with a vine arbor where visitors stop to rest and talk. It is a small, bright kingdom where each of them is completely at ease.
This opening matters because the whole comedy depends on how much these two trust each other. Alarcón wants you to like them before anything goes wrong. A happy marriage, in this book, is something worth defending, and also something that rumor and bad luck can shake. When trouble arrives, you will care about both of them at once.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Who’s who
- Uncle Lucas
- A quick-witted miller, Uncle Lucas is Frasquita's devoted husband and a cheerful man without wealth or rank.
- Frasquita
- Frasquita is Lucas's beautiful, strong-willed wife from Navarre, loyal to her husband and protective of their home.
- The Corregidor
- The Corregidor is the town's vain chief magistrate, married to Doña Mercedes but intent on pursuing Frasquita.
- Garduña
- Garduña is the Corregidor's sly servant, helping his master scheme against the couple at the mill.
- Doña Mercedes
- Doña Mercedes is the Corregidor's wife, a woman of standing whose household contrasts with the miller's.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 69,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 35 min
- Listening time7 h 40 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Der Dreispitz
What is The Three-Cornered Hat about?
It is a comic tale set in Andalusia, about a miller and his wife who are pursued by a vain local magistrate. One night of schemes, jealousy and disguise puts both households in a tangle.
Who is the Corregidor in The Three-Cornered Hat?
The Corregidor is the chief royal magistrate of the town, a vain older man in a scarlet cape and three-cornered hat. He holds real power and uses it to chase the miller's wife.
What does the three-cornered hat mean in the story?
The hat is the badge of the Corregidor's office. In the story it stands for official dignity and power, and for how foolish that dignity looks when it is stripped of respect.
When was The Three-Cornered Hat written and is it based on a true story?
Alarcón published it in 1874. It is fiction, based on an old Andalusian folk tale and song, and set in the early 1800s under the reign of Charles IV.
Is The Three-Cornered Hat hard to read?
No. It has clear plotting, lively dialogue and a friendly narrator. The story is easy to follow.