The Quest

Pío Baroja

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• Publié par: vaum
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quest, by
Pio Baroja #2 in our series by Pio Baroja
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**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla
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Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands
of Volunteers!*****
Title: The QuestAuthor: Pio Baroja
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8496] [Yes, we
are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This
file was first posted on July 16, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK THE QUEST ***
Produced by Eric Eldred, Cam, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading TeamTHE QUEST
BY PÍO BAROJA
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH By ISAAC
GOLDBERGCONTENTS
PART ONE
I Preamble—Somewhat Immoral Notions of a
Boarding-House Keeper—A
Balcony is Heard Closing—A Cricket Chirps
II Doña Casiana's House—A Morning Ceremony—
Conspiracy—Wherein is Discussed The Nutritive
Value of Bones—Petra and Her Family—Manuel;
his Arrival in Madrid
III First Impressions of Madrid—The Boarders—
Idyll—Sweet and
Delightful Lessons
IV Oh, Love, Love!—What's Don Telmo Doing?—
Who is Don
Telmo?—Wherein the Student and Don Telmo
Assume Certain Novelesque
Proportions
PART TWO
I "The Regeneration of Footgear" and "The Lion of
the Bootmaker's
Art"—The First Sunday—An Escapade—El Bizco
and his Gang
II The "Big Yard" or Uncle Rilo's House—LocalEnmities
III Roberto Hastings at the Shoemaker's—The
Procession of
Beggars—Court of Miracles
IV Life in the Cobbler's Shop—Manuel's Friends
V La Blasa's Tavern
VI Roberto in Quest of a Woman—El Tabuenca
and his
Inventions—Don Alonso or the Snake-Man
VII The Kermesse on Pasión Street—"The Dude"—
A Café Chantant
VIII Leandro's Irresolution—In La Blasa's Tavern—
The Man with the
Three Cards—The Duel with Valencia
IX An Unlikely Tale—Manuel's Sisters—Life's
Baffling Problems
PART THREE
I Uncle Patas' Domestic Drama—The Bakery—Karl
the Baker—The Society of the Three
II One of the Many Disagreeable Ways of Dying in
Madrid—The
Orphan—El Cojo and his Cave—Night in the
ObservatoryIII Meeting with Roberto—Roberto Narrates the
Origin of a Fantastic
Fortune
IV Dolores the Scandalous—Pastiri's Tricks—
Tender Savagery—A
Modest Out-of-the-way Robbery
V Gutter Vestals—The Troglodites
VI Señor Custodio and his Establishment—The
Free Life
VII Señor Custodio's Ideas—La Justa, el
Carnicerín and El
Conejo
VIII The Square—A Wedding in La Bombilla—The
Asphalt CaldronsPART ONECHAPTER I
Preamble—Somewhat Immoral Notions of a
Boarding-House Keeper—A
Balcony Is Heard Closing—A Cricket Chirps.
The clock in the corridor had just struck twelve, in a
leisurely, rhythmic, decorous manner. It was the
habit of that tall old narrow-cased clock to
accelerate or retard, after its own sweet taste and
whim, the uniform and monotonous series of hours
that encircle our life until it wraps it and leaves it,
like an infant in its crib, in the obscure bosom of
time.
Soon after this friendly indication of the old clock,
uttered in a solemn, peaceful voice becoming an
aged person, the hour of eleven rang out in a shrill,
grotesque fashion, with juvenile impertinence, from
a petulant little clock of the vicinity, and a few
minutes later, to add to the confusion and the
chronometric disorder, the bell of a neighbouring
church gave a single long, sonorous stroke that
quivered for several seconds in the silent
atmosphere.
Which of the three clocks was correct? Which of
those three devices for the mensuration of time
was the most exact in its indications?
The author cannot say, and he regrets it. He,
regrets it, because Time, according to certainsolemn philosophers, is the canvas background
against which we embroider the follies of our
existence, and truly it is little scientific not to be
able to indicate at precisely which moment the
canvas of this book begins. But the author does
not know; all he can say is, that at that moment the
steeds of night had for an appreciable time been
coursing across the heavens. It was, then, the
hour of mystery; the hour when wicked folk stalk
abroad; the hour in which the poet dreams of
immortality, rhyming hijos with prolijos and amor
with dolor; the hour in which the night-walker slinks
forth from her lair and the gambler enters his; the
hour of adventures that are sought and never
found; the hour, finally, of the chaste virgin's
dreams and of the venerable old man's
rheumatism. And as this romantic hour glided on,
the shouts and songs and quarrels of the street
subsided; the lights in the balconies were
extinguished; the shopkeepers and janitors drew in
their chairs from the gutter to surrender
themselves to the arms of sleep.
In the chaste, pure dwelling of Doña Casiana the
boarding-house keeper, idyllic silence had reigned
for some time. Only through the balcony windows,
which were wide open, came the distant rumbling
of carriages and the song of a neighbouring cricket
who scratched with disagreeable persistency upon
the strident string of his instrument.
At the hour, whatever it was, that was marked by
the twelve slow, raucous snores of the corridor
clock, there were in the house only an old