Exemplary Stories

Even more popular in their day than Don Quixote, Cervantes's Exemplary Stories (1613) surprise, challenge and delight. Ranging from the picaresque to the satirical, Cervantes's Exemplary Stories defy the conventions of heroic chivalric literature through a combination of comic irony, moral ambiguity, realism, and sheer mirth. With acute narrative skill and deft characterisation, drawing on colloquial language and farce, Cervantes creates a tension between the everyday and the literary, the plausible and the improbable. While encouraging us to reach our own moral conclusions, he also persuades us to accept the coincidental and the incredible: two boys indulge their life of crime at a time of public prayer; a young nobleman undergoes a change of identity at the behest of not a princess but a mere gipsy girl, and, most fantastically, talking dogs philosophize in a ward full of syphilitics. By placing the extraordinary within the contexts of the ordinary, the Exemplary Stories chart new novelistic territory and demonstrate Cervantes at his most imaginative and innovative.This new translation captures the full vigour of Cervantes's wit and makes available two rarely printed tales, 'The Illustrious Kitchen Maid' and 'The Power of Blood'. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

"West shows...ingenuity and resourcefulness at bringing across the complex linguistic, generic and social nuances of the originals....West's book should be the translation of choice for students and general readers, whatever their motive for reading this poetry may be, and even experienced scholars will want to see what West has made of the difficult and controversial passages they encounter in their own study of Greek....By all means acquire this beautifully produced volume."--International Journal of the Classical Tradition "Clear, modern translation free of the defects of both literalism and unnecessary paraphrase. A very useful book for a survey of Greek lit course."--Douglas Domingo Foraste, California State University at Long Beach "A representative and entrancing collection faithfully rendered with musical elegance and, when the occasion demands, frankly lucid."--E.N. Genovese, San Diego State University "Finally an affordable replacement for Lattimore! This selection is enormous, the notes are generou