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Audiobook edition · 5 h 8 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In the courts and gardens of Moorish Andalusia, love and honor pull people apart.
Novels and Tales gathers Serafín Estébanez Calderón’s fiction and sketches of Andalusia. Courts, gardens, ballads and quarrels fill its world. Love meets barriers of rank, rivalry, religion and family pride, while the speech, music and customs of the region give these Romantic tales their distinctive texture.
Known as El Solitario, Estébanez Calderón looks toward the Moorish south with curiosity and affection. His tales and sketches explore a past shaped by memory, legend and loss. Granada and Andalusia become places of beauty and mixed cultures, seen through nostalgia rather than a strict concern for historical accuracy.
What you’ll discover
- Love against honor Explore the tensions that arise when affection meets rivalry, social rank and family pride.
- Courts and gardens Enter an Andalusian world where beauty shares space with quarrels and divided loyalties.
- The sound of Andalusia Discover a writer’s affection for regional speech, music and the customs of ordinary people.
- A past imagined See how Romantic storytelling blends history and legend into a vision of Moorish Spain.
- Beauty touched by loss Feel the nostalgia that gives this vanished world its warmth and its sense of distance.
Who will love it
Readers who love the romance of Moorish Granada will find it here, along with fans of swashbuckling adventure, ghost stories, courtly satire and old Spanish comedy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A beggar hides a quick mind
- María chooses peace over a crown
- Love and rivalry meet at a bridge
- Buried gold takes hold of Carlos
- A vanished necklace silences the court
- Stories offer another way to reach Híala
- Lofty dreams meet laughter and surprise
- Mockery carries a memory of loss
- Hope and loss live side by side
Who’s who
- MaríaA Moorish heiress of Granada's royal line, raised in the Christian faith, who wants peace and her beloved rather than a crown.
- Don Lope de ZúñigaA Castilian officer and harp-playing knight, favored by the Emperor, who comes in secret to claim María as his wife.
- CigarralA soldier disguised as a crippled beggar, whose crutches hide swords and whose clever dog serves as his messenger.
- MuleyMaría's proud cousin, who returns from Barbary dreaming of revolt and of making her his wife.
- GerifMaría's elderly uncle, who remembers the Alhambra and loves his niece more than anything left to him.
- MercadoA sharp young altar boy who shelters the beggar and helps him with schemes.
- HíalaThe bride of Sultan Mohamad II, who wears a necklace of nine pearls to her wedding.
- Ben-FardingA tiny madman of the Alcazaba who thinks he is drilling through the earth and who sets the terms of the Sultana's cure.
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Novels and Tales
Near Ronda, a dancing dog, a beggar with swords in his crutches and a Moorish bride meet at a ruined crossing.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“Better a blush on your face than a knife wound.”
In short
Picture a beggar on a mountain path. He leans on two crutches, one eye patched, the other watering, and a little dog dances at his feet.
Novels and Tales at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 10 min2 h 30 min fast, 3 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 44,800 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A beggar with a dog hides a sword
The Loner opens on a cool autumn Sunday in a village near Ronda. After evening prayers, the villagers stroll toward a white chapel. Beside a spring, under two walnut trees, a ragged man sits on crutches, one eye patched and the other red and watering. He is Moyano del Cigarral, and he says he is a wounded soldier of the Emperor Charles V.
A boy named Mercado, an altar boy who lets him sleep in the bell tower room, tells him who is passing, and Cigarral jokes about each one. Pero Antúnez lends one-twelfth of a fanega of grain and collects two fanegas. These are Old Christians living among the Moriscos, Moors who were made to accept baptism, and not one of them drops a coin into his hand.
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Details
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Cite this edition
Estébanez Calderón, Serafín. Novels and Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/novels-and-tales.
Estébanez Calderón, S. (2026). Novels and tales. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/novels-and-tales
Estébanez Calderón, Serafín. Novels and Tales. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/novels-and-tales.
@book{estebanezcalderon2026novels,
author = {Estébanez Calderón, Serafín},
title = {Novels and Tales},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/novels-and-tales}
}
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What is Novels and Tales by Estébanez Calderón about?
It is a collection of stories set in Moorish and Christian Spain. The main piece, The Loner, tells of a disguised soldier, a dancing dog and a Moorish bride. Shorter tales add ghosts, a sultan's lost necklace, letters, fables and farce.
Who is Cigarral in The Loner?
Moyano del Cigarral is an old soldier who plays a blind and crippled beggar. His dog Canique steals hats and carries messages, his crutches hide swords, and he becomes the loyal servant and helper of Don Lope.
What does the ninth pearl in The Pearl Necklace mean?
The ninth pearl in the necklace of Híala has many colors and no known source. According to the tale, it changes color whenever the person wearing the necklace is about to meet a sudden change of fortune.
The author
Serafín Estébanez Calderón
1799–1867 · Spanish writer
Spanish author.
“Better a blush on your face than a knife wound.”
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