La casa de los espíritus

Ile des pingouins

Anatole France

"Penguin Island" from Anatole France. French poet, journalist, and novelist (1844-1924).

A Doll's House

Henrik Ibsen

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen portrays Nora, the wife, as a "doll," beautiful, unsophisticated, childlike, well-meaning, but ignorant of the adult world and affairs. All of her friends see her as a doll. Her husband Torvald treats her as one, calling her childish names. He tries to control all of her behavior, not because he is mean, but because he loves her and he realizes that she is unable to do so. IN "A Doll's House, Torvald" tells Nora what to eat so that her teeth will not be spoiled from sugar and how much she should spend because she does not understand much about money. And it is the latter, the money, that gets Nora into trouble. Torvald was sick some years back and needed to travel and stay in a warmer climate for some months, but the couple had no money. She, out of childish but ignorant love, borrowed money from an unscrupulous man who insisted that she have her father countersign the loan. Her father was dying, so she forged his signature on the loan document. She was certain that this was not wrong because her intentions were pure, she wanted to save her husband's life. She did not tell her husband about the loan because she childishly wanted to surprise him someday in the future and show him that she acted wisely and that she, who he thought of as childlike, saved his life. She laughed about her cleverness often when she was alone. Now the unscrupulous lender is demanding something from Nora, or he will reveal the forgery to her husband and his employer, and this will affect her marriage and her husband will lose his job. The tragedy in Henrik Ibsen's "The Doll's House" probably would not have occured if the people would have treated women properly as human beings rather than dolls.

Essais

Montaigne, Michel de

En 1580, Michel de Montaigne dio a la imprenta la primera edición de sus dos libros de Los ensayos. El éxito fue tan arrollador que, dos años más tarde, apareció una nueva edición, aumentada con un tercer libro y con notables adiciones y correcciones en los dos primeros. Se completaba así la redacción de uno de los libros que mayor prestigio e influencia han tenido en el pensamiento occidental. Sin embargo, el gentilhombre perigordino siguió trabajando en el texto de sus ensayos hasta su muerte, acaecida en 1592. Tres años más tarde, Marie de Gournay, «fille d?alliance» de Montaigne, presentaba una edición de Los ensayos siguiendo las instrucciones que le diera su autor, edición que durante siglos ha sido considerada canónica, hasta que Strowski preparó la suya entre 1906 y 1933. Hoy, el de Marie de Gournay es visto de nuevo, con justicia, como el texto de referencia, y sirve de base a todas las ediciones recientes fiables. Éste es también el que el lector hispano encontrará en la presente edición, enriquecida con referencias a los múltiples estadios que experimentó el texto y con un completo aparato de notas. Una edición útil al especialista y próxima al lector común.