"El Conde Lucanor (Del Libro del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio)," by Don Juan Manuel, edited by David G. Burton
El Conde Lucanor is Don Juan Manuel’s masterpiece, upon which his fame rests. It is a delightful collection of fifty-odd tales narrated in a style peculiar to its author and held together by an age-old framework stemming almost certainly from eastern writings. In El Conde Lucanor, a count brings his problems to his counselor, Patronio, who suggests solutions through stories. Each tale teaches one or more moral lessons or truths, a didactic goal which does not preclude the pleasures to be derived from good fiction. So that the reader could enjoy himself as he learned, Don Juan wrote in an attractive way and chose interesting subjects. Writing with this dual purpose, he happily blended elements of interest, pleasure, and didacticism.
This is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish, first written in 1335.
ISBN 978-1-58977-052-2 (PB) $20