Summary
Summary of Captain Poison
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Kindness meets a soldier in armor
Captain Poison brings together a wounded soldier with a terrible temper and a household that refuses to fear him. A widow guards her noble titles, a servant sleeps through crises, and a young woman answers insults with a calm smile. Around them, Madrid is caught in a rising against the crown.
The comic conflict is also a tender one. This soldier would rather face a bullet than accept affection. What happens when a man determined to be impossible meets people who will not stop caring?
Key idea 2
Angustias steps into the gunfire
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Key idea 3
The patient rejects his rescuers
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Key idea 4
His cousin reveals another Jorge
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Key idea 5
Their quarrels begin to reveal tenderness
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Key idea 6
Pride hides the need for care
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Key idea 7
Lively talk carries the feeling
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Key idea 8
Actions speak beneath the angry words
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
Readers who love a spiky hero with a soft heart, quick banter between a man and a woman who match each other, and warm comedy set in nineteenth century Madrid.
What this book is
Captain Poison is a short Spanish novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, published in 1881. It is set in Madrid in 1848, in the smoke of a street rising against the crown. It gives you a comic and tender tale about a soldier who would rather take a bullet than a kind word.
You meet a wounded officer with a terrible temper, a widow who clings to her noble titles, a servant who snores through every crisis, and a young woman who answers every insult with a calm smile. The book moves fast and is full of lively talk, quarrels and sudden jokes. It also asks a gentle question. What happens to a man who has built his whole life on being impossible when kindness will not leave him alone? Let us begin on the afternoon of the street fight, where the story starts.
In this summary
- 1A street fight and a rescueFree
- 2A patient who hates being cared for
- 3The marquis tells the captain's story
- 4Cards, quarrels and a growing tenderness
- 5What the story is really about
- 6How the story is told
Key point 1 of 6
A street fight and a rescue
On the afternoon of 26 March 1848, republicans and royal soldiers shoot at each other in the narrow streets around the Puerta del Sol in Madrid. In a modest ground floor flat on Preciados Street live three women. They are a proud widow from the Basque country, her daughter Angustias, and their maid Rosa, who comes from Galicia.
The narrator takes a moment to describe Angustias. She is not a showy beauty. She is balanced, simple and sensible, and her charm grows on you slowly, the way a well proportioned building does. She is also braver than her mother and the maid, and she keeps slipping to the window to watch the fight.
From there she sees a thin, fortyish officer in a strange mix of army cap and hunting gear, urging the soldiers on. A volley from the rebels brings him down, and the street falls silent. Angustias does not hesitate. She talks her frightened mother and the terrified maid into helping, and together the three women carry the bleeding stranger into the widow's own bed.
The wounds are a graze across the forehead and a broken right leg. A doctor is needed at once, and Angustias insists on fetching him herself, even as her mother forbids it. She argues that her own father died bleeding in a forest because no one helped him. She crosses the street while a gunman fires from an attic, and the bullet punches a hole through her skirt. She brings the doctor home unhurt, and the story has found its hero and its heroine.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Check yourself
Why does Angustias risk crossing the street to fetch a doctor?
Right. “She argues that her own father died bleeding in a forest because no one helped him.”Not quite. “She argues that her own father died bleeding in a forest because no one helped him.”
What does Angustias understand about Jorge's fierce behavior?
Right. “Angustias understands that his roaring is a kind of shyness.”Not quite. “Angustias understands that his roaring is a kind of shyness.”
What shared pattern connects Jorge and the women caring for him?
Right. “Each of them hides a need behind a show of dignity.”Not quite. “Each of them hides a need behind a show of dignity.”
Questions about Captain Poison
What is Captain Poison about?
It tells of a gruff army captain wounded in a street fight in Madrid in 1848 and nursed by a widow, her daughter Angustias and their maid. He claims to hate kindness, but the women slowly change him.
Why is he called Captain Poison?
The nickname comes from the men at his club and cafés, who see him always in a rage and ready to fight over nothing. In truth he is honourable, shy of women and kind underneath.
Who is Angustias in Captain Poison?
She is the young Madrid woman who sees the captain fall, helps carry him home and crosses a gunfire swept street for a doctor. She is calm, witty and the only person who is not frightened by his temper.
When was Captain Poison written and is it a true story?
Alarcón published it in 1881, and the tale is set in Madrid in 1848. The street fight on 26 March 1848 is a real event, but the characters and their story are fiction.
Is Captain Poison easy to read?
It is a short, lively novel built on quick dialogue and comic scenes. The chapters are brief, the narrator speaks warmly to you, and the plot moves along with every conversation.
