5 h 21 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Lima, a street name, a whispered scandal, or a clever rogue can open a door into Peru’s past.
In Peruvian Traditions, Ricardo Palma brings together short tales that mingle archive research, local legend, gossip, and humor. Most return to colonial Peru, where Spanish viceroys rule from Lima. Others reach into the Inca past and the early republic. Across these stories, pride and folly give history a lively human face.
Viceroys share the stage with priests, nuns, smugglers, lovers, and judges. Servants outsmart their betters, while cheats and gamblers reveal another side of society. Palma calls each piece a tradition: a form between history and fiction, rooted in documents, sayings, street names, and remembered stories. His wit invites you to explore how a nation tells its own past.
What you’ll discover
- History meets local legend Discover how documents and old stories come together in Palma’s distinctive traditions.
- Power with a human face Meet viceroys whose authority offers Palma rich ground for irony and gentle mockery.
- Faith in colonial life Explore tales where holy figures, accounts of miracles, convents, and processions shape Lima’s world.
- Rogues with quick wits Follow clever servants, jealous husbands, and quick-witted women through stories alive with human folly.
- A city worth wandering Wander Lima’s streets, balconies, and plazas through tales filled with affection for the city.
Who will love it
For readers who love short tales, colonial history told with humor, and the flavor of Latin American storytelling.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A tradition blends fact and legend
- Viceroys and the theater of power
- Saints, priests and the colorful Church
- Rogues, lovers and clever tricksters
- Lima as a living character
- Humor as a way of telling history
- Building a national memory
- How the tales have lasted
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Traditions péruviennes
In colonial Lima, viceroys, lovers and rogues reveal pride and folly in tales that mingle history, gossip and wit.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Peruvian Traditions is a collection of short prose pieces by Ricardo Palma, a writer and librarian from Lima. He called each piece a tradition.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A tradition blends fact and legend
Palma invented a form that sits between history and fiction. Each tradition starts from a real document, a street name, a saying or an old story that people in Lima still repeated. He then builds a short narrative around it, often only a few pages long.
He did not claim to be a strict historian. He said, in effect, that his pieces were history told in a lighter way, with room for invention where records ran out. Readers should therefore treat the details as colorful, not as sworn evidence.
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What is Peruvian Traditions about?
It is a collection of short tales about Peru, mostly from the colonial period. They feature viceroys, priests, rogues and ordinary people of Lima, told with humor and based on documents, legends and local sayings.
Is Peruvian Traditions a true story?
Not strictly. Palma based many tales on real records and events but added invention and humor. They are best read as historical storytelling, not as exact history.
What is a tradition in Ricardo Palma's work?
A tradition is Palma's own form, a short prose piece that blends history, legend, gossip and wit. It is shorter than a story and lighter than a history, usually centered on one episode or saying.
The author
Ricardo Palma
1833–1919 · Peruvian writer and historian
Ricardo Palma was a Peruvian writer and historian born in Lima in 1833. He wrote the historical prose collection Peruvian Traditions, whose first volume appeared in 1872. He also wrote poetry. He directed Peru’s National Library from 1883 to 1912. He died in Miraflores, near Lima, in 1919.
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