Los Santos Inocentes

by Miguel Delibes

Book Overview

Los santos inocentes Enslaved by their master, Paco and his family work from sunrise to sundown. Azar?as is his naive and solitary brother-in-law, whose only concern is taking care of his bird, a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 8408039709
• ISBN13: 9788408039709
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Planeta Publishing
• Length: 175 Pages

Customer Reviews

grotesque

A short and passionate novel about an implausibly feudal countryside in contemporary Spain. It's told in run-on, inarticulate sentences, as if in the voices of its characters, the abused lackeys of a hideous Franquista latifundia. If the masters are portrayed as morally grotesque, so in their own way are the 'santos' (the oppressed countryfolk), most of them physically or mentally deformed, filthy, stupefied, 'Tierra Sin Pan'-like. They are at least in touch with the natural world -- but so is the worst of the masters, who is obsessed with hunting. (This "señorito" seems to be in part the author, who was a hunting fanatic too.) Did such people really inhabit Spain in 1981?

A chronicle of change: from feudal to modern Spain

An aspect that is often neglected in Los santos inocentes is that the hacienda where it takes place is depicted as a remnant of feudal Spain. The location (Extremadura, land of the Reconquista), the "border" where Paco el Bajo and his family are posted, and, most of all, the relations between nobles and plebeians, clearly indicate a societal order in which power relations still follow a Medieval pattern. However, this hierarchical model is not functional anymore, not only because the servants do not see themselves as such, but also because the masters do not carry on their duties: the marchioness lives in Madrid, the young master does not respect the sexual honour of his servants, and the master of Azarias fires him because he is old, something unthinkable in the feudal system where nobody can be fired. The patriarchal (matriarchal in this case) order is falling apart.

UN LIBRO AUTENTICO

Delibes tiene esa manera de contar las cosas tan especial. El dice, con su natural humildad, que aprendio a escribir con un una guia de derecho mercantil, pero yo creo que con el don se nace, y Delibes solo hay uno. Con su llanura, sobriedad y sinceridad conquista al lector. Este es un libro intimo, sencillo, bien escrito, lleno de amor y de crueldad, como la vida. Es uno de los libros mas autenticos que he leido. Lo recomiendo a todo el mundo con "El Camino",del mismo autor.

The love-and-hate between landowners and peasants. Superb.

Delibes is one of Spain's most important contemporary writers... and it shows. This book is an excellent description of the complicated relationship between a family of upper-class landowners and their poor employees, the real "Holy Innocents". An excellent book, full of that touch of bitterness often added by Delibes and of that incredible capacity for describing people and situations that he has. It must be added that Delibes is consistently regarded as one of the writers with the fullest and deepest command of the Spanish language: his (not ranslated) works are also a must for scholars and students