Resumen
Resumen de Cuentos crepusculares
Para quién es
Readers who love flowers, seasons and Paris, who enjoy a poet talking to his beloved, and who like moods that slide from tears to jokes. Anyone who wants love told in many short, bright pieces.
De qué trata este libro
Twilight Tales is a collection of short lyrical prose pieces by Armand Silvestre, the French poet and storyteller who died in 1901. He gathered them in 1888 for readers who already knew his earlier fantasies. The book opens with a hymn in praise of dark-haired women. It then follows the year through four groups of pieces, one each for spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Each piece runs only a few pages and speaks to a beloved woman, often called my dear soul. A flower, a fall of snow, a fog or a dead leaf starts a memory, a dream or a small song. Between the tender moments come jokes about Paris, politicians and painters. You get love, beauty and melancholy, with a lot of laughter mixed in. Let us begin with the hymn that sets the tone for everything that follows.
En este resumen
- 1Praise the dark-haired belovedFree
- 2Spring flowers carry old stories
- 3Summer drifts into dreams and jokes
- 4Autumn gives love its sharpest feelings
- 5Winter tests love and tricks the mind
- 6A voice that turns sorrow into song
Idea clave 1 de 6
Praise the dark-haired beloved
The book opens with Hymn to Brunettes, a letter to the writer Catulle Mendès. Silvestre says that dark-haired women have complained about the songs in praise of blondes. One bitter letter even reaches him from Algiers. He agrees to speak for them, because the woman who holds the secret of his joy and his despair has hair as black as night.
He sets the two kinds of beauty side by side. Blondes shine like sunlight and invite pleasure. Dark-haired women are pale like moonlight, and their beauty seems made of the need to suffer, which he links to the need to love. He says their cold kiss seems to drink the blood of their lovers. He adds a tender little song about a swallow's shadow passing over a bright brow.
Then he laughs at himself. What if the women who asked for his help were only the spicy little brunettes of country sayings? He ends with a clear creed. The women he serves must have night in the hair and in the eyes, and daylight on the brow and lips. They must have the solemn grace of old goddesses and the rounded form of an ancient jar.
With Spring Tales the year begins, and the first piece, The Premiere of Spring, shows the mixture to come. The calendar says spring has arrived, but the window shows snow. Silvestre complains that the calendar forgets his own saint, Saint Armand. He wishes, like a lover, that Joshua had stopped the sun for love and not for battle. He then takes sharp swipes at street crimes and at the bookmakers who weep over a lost scrap of wood, before returning to his beloved by the fire.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about Cuentos crepusculares
What is Twilight Tales about?
It is a collection of short lyrical prose pieces and small songs by Armand Silvestre. A poet speaks to the woman he loves through the four seasons, using flowers, dreams and memories to talk about love, beauty and loss.
Who is the woman the narrator speaks to?
She is never named. He calls her my dear soul, madam or my love. She has dark hair and eyes, loves flowers and teases him, and she stands for love itself throughout the book.
Why does the book begin with Hymn to Brunettes?
The hymn answers a friend's songs praising blonde women. Silvestre defends dark-haired beauty as pale, moonlike and sorrowful, and in doing so sets the romantic, playful tone for the pieces that follow.
How is the book arranged?
After the opening hymn, it has four groups of short pieces, named Spring Tales, Summer Tales, Autumn Tales and Winter Tales. Each short piece is easy to read on its own, and a few include verses.
Is Twilight Tales funny or sad?
Both. Many pieces are tender and wistful, about flowers, memories and lost chances. Others are comic dreams about God as an actor, a flood, a masked ball and a hunt. The mix keeps the pace lively.