Spanish · Beginner
Read La alegría del capitán Ribot in Spanishwith every sentence explained
English title: The Joy of Captain Ribot
Armando Palacio Valdés · 1899
Free to start · iPhone, iPad & Mac
About the book
La alegría del capitán Ribot by Armando Palacio Valdés was first published in 1899. In Passage you read the full text in the original Spanish, marked beginner and filed under romance. It runs to about 57,600 words.
A cry for help on a dark quay. A pair of unforgettable black eyes. One small problem: she is married.
Julián Ribot, a cheerful, food-loving sea captain from Alicante, is on his way to the best tripe stew in Gijón when he hears screams in the night. He rushes out, pulls an elderly Valencian lady from the harbour, and meets her daughter Cristina: witty, warm, and the wife of Emilio Martí, a partner in a Valencia shipping firm.
Ribot is soon far more taken with her than is good for his peace of mind. Unable to forget her, he hands over his ship and takes the train to sunny Valencia, where the Martís welcome him like one of the family and where he must discover what kind of man, and friend, he really is.
Told by Ribot himself, The Joy of Captain Ribot (1899) is one of Armando Palacio Valdés's most translated novels: a charming, dialogue-rich love story that is a pleasure to read in Spanish.
- Author
- Armando Palacio Valdés
- First published
- 1899
- Language
- Spanish
- Level
- Beginner
- Genre
- Romance
- Length
- About 57,600 words
How it opens
EN Málaga no los guisan mal; en Vigo, todavia mejor; en Bilbao los he comido en más de una ocasión primorosamente aliñados. Pero nada tienen que ver estos ni otros que me han servido en los diferentes puntos donde suelo hacer escala con los que guisa una señora Ramona en cierta tienda de vinos y comidas llamada El Cometa, situada en el muelle de Gijón. Por eso cuando esta inteligentísima mujer averigua que el Urano ha entrado en el puerto, ya está preparando sus cacerolas para recibirme.
Reading La alegría del capitán Ribot in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in Spanish. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked beginner, so it's a good first whole book if you know the basics of Spanish and want something you can finish. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
