5 h 21 minAudiobook7 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
You will love it if you enjoy short tales with a sly voice, colonial history told through gossip, proverbs and their origins, or travel through old Lima and Cuzco one story at a time.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A cruel admiral provokes calls for justice
- A fever cure carries a countess's name
- Sudden riches draw a viceroy's greed
- Honest love and wild dice make hard choices
- Clever thieves meet a viceroy with sharp ears
- A rope, a grave and a rebel inca
- Love, revenge and proverbs grow from daily life
- Customs and sayings explain everyday colonial life
- Wit, digression and history shape the voice
Who’s who
- Prince of EsquilacheA poet and viceroy of Peru who loves letters, founds a literary academy and prefers a good joke to a long trial.
- Benedicta SalazarA beautiful orphan of Lima, nicknamed the Cat of Mari-Ramos, who works as a seamstress after leaving her aunt's home.
- Doña Feliciana ChavesA rich, hardworking Lima businesswoman who sets out for Ica to confront her husband and faces danger before she can leave.
- Ambrosio O'HigginsAn Irish-born viceroy who walks Lima at night to see whether his rule of no one on the streets after ten is obeyed.
- Master LucasA gifted silversmith of Lima who spends his earnings on drink and gambling and knows the Augustinian church too well.
- Román the silversmithA tired husband in Lima whose wife spends everything, and who goes out one morning with four yards of new rope.
- Mama SaloméA free Black woman who becomes queen of the Terranovas, and whose mazamorra shop is the finest in Lima.
- Tupac-AmaruA descendant of the Incas and cacique of Tungasuca, who has had enough of a cruel, boastful corregidor.
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- Audiobook
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Tradizioni peruviane
A viceroy orders Lima's patrols to enforce his curfew without favouring the rich.
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In short
What stories can a goblin, a silver mine and a single olive inspire? Peruvian Traditions by Ricardo Palma gathers tales and historical sketches of Peru, often linking them to viceroys, customs and popular sayings.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A cruel admiral provokes calls for justice
The first tale begins in Cuzco with a proud admiral, whose title passes from father to son. One morning he orders his servants to beat anyone who comes to the courtyard fountain for water. A poor old woman is among the first victims, and her son, a young priest, goes to protest and is beaten himself.
Cuzco is outraged, and the clergy and townspeople declare the admiral excommunicated. The priest kneels before the Cathedral's image of Christ and leaves a written complaint at its feet. Next day he finds a note in the margin saying that justice will be done.
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What is Peruvian Traditions about?
It is a collection of short tales about colonial Peru, mostly set in Lima and Cuzco. Many blend history with legend, introduce a viceroy, or explain a proverb or custom with humour.
Are the stories in Peruvian Traditions true?
They mix fact and folklore. Palma draws on chronicles, manuscripts and oral stories, while many scenes come from popular tradition, and he says plainly when a tale has no written source.
Who is Ricardo Palma and when did he write it?
Palma is a writer who gathers historical anecdotes and popular traditions. He refers to earlier books of his Traditions and includes observations dated 1880.
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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