La Celestina

La Celestina

3.39 of 5 stars 3.39  ·  rating details  ·  1,983 ratings  ·  62 reviews
La loca pasión por Melibea, hija de un rico mercader, lleva al joven Calisto a romper todas las barreras morales y a aliarse con una vieja alcahueta y hechicera, Celestina. El amor es, pues, una pasión que lo mueve todo. Los señores aman según los cánones del amor cortés, y los criados se mueven en el inframundo de los prostíbulos, pero tanto unos como otros sienten el goz...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published May 1st 2010 by Castalia (first published 1499)
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Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly
For about a month they have been having sex clandestinely at night, inside Malibea's room, right under the noses of her unsuspecting parents. To get to her room Calisto has to climb up a steep ladder carried to the site every night by his servants. During this last night, after three exhausting but blissful encores, Calisto heard a commotion outside. Rushing to check what it was, suspecting his servants may be in trouble, he slipped off the ladder and fell to his death, his head split into three...more
charta
Nonostante sia trascorso più di mezzo secolo dalla prima edizione di questa traduzione in italiano della comedia para ser leída per eccellenza, per raffinatezza e fedeltà al testo resta un pregevolissimo lavoro.
Nick Bond
Sometimes credited as the first novel and the work that marked the beginning of the Spanish literary Renaissance, La Celestina uses a combination of tragedy and comedy to cast its bizarre spell on unsuspecting readers. It provides a truly unique experience that I enjoyed a great deal, though a number of warnings are necessary before anyone dives into it headfirst.

First off, let's be clear -- for all intents and purposes, this is a play. It consists only of dialogue and its style is far closer to...more
Emusam
This drama/novel is fun to read because of the parodic elements and very notable for its style of dialogue and one particular character that it introduces (Celestina). This work really denotes the end of the medieval period and the beginning of the Renacimiento. On one end we have El cantar del mio Cid and, on the other, we have La Celestina. Characters are not black and white and there is intrigue and suicide. Calisto's complaining about how his beloved doesn't even know he exists was one of my...more
Carlos Vazquez
Novela o drama -no se sabe porque por entonces las formas literarias eran incipientes- que, perdonen, pero a mí me gusta más que D. Quijote.
Es una obra máxima de la literatura mundial, y trata de las aventuras de Celestina, bruja alcohólica que rige dos prostitutas –ella ha sido prostituta de joven- y favorece el amor entre dos jóvenes de alto rango en la nobleza, pero cuyo amor está socialmente prohibido, Calixto y Melibea.
Dos jóvenes que no son Romeo y Julieta, sino estúpidos. Esta es la hist...more
Nella Fantasia
Una de las grandes obras de la literatura española, "la Celestina" es una obra imprescindible para comprender cómo era la España del siglo XV y XVI. Muy moderna para publicarse en el 1499, cuenta la historia de Celestina, mujer que utilizaba brebajes y ungüentos entre otros. Actuará como mediadora entre Calisto y Melibea, dos enamorados. Todo esta obra es una novela dialogada, algo inédito en España hasta ese momento y muy crítica tanto con la sociedad (que se movía por dinero e intereses) como...more
Talia
Mar 31, 2010 Talia is currently reading it  ·  review of another edition
I just bought the book today, after hearing the translator, Peter Bush, speak about his experiences and intents with this translation. He also compared his translation to others, and talked about the author (a law student, Jewish convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition) and the literary environment at that time. Interestingly, de Rojas never wrote another book; possibly because this one portrays the church in a bad light. Also he wrote this book for professional readers who would read stor...more
Aaron Cance
"Laugh-out-loud funny" book is not only extremely entertaining, but also lays some of the groundwork for the modern novel by way of the individualized psychology of its characters, who are no longer present as set pieces but now have their own opinions and ideas about what's going on in the story (and aren't afraid to share them with the reader through many asides). Apparently, this book was enormously influential on Miguel de Cervantes, and the reader can easily see how this work (can we call i...more
Jay F
“La Celestina” sits between the last gasps of the Middle Ages and the first breaths of the Renaissance. Written for the most part by a 25 year old graduate of the Universidad de Salamanca, it also stands slightly behind “Don Quijote” in Castile’s novelistic rankings. It is still, over 500 years after its composition in 1499-1502, a masterpiece of Western literature. Arguably, it also could lay claim (according to Otis Green in his” Spain and the Western Tradition”) to being the first novel or “t...more
Jay F
“La Celestina” sits between the last gasps of the Middle Ages and the first breaths of the Renaissance. Written for the most part by a 25 year old graduate of the Universidad de Salamanca, it also stands slightly behind “Don Quijote” in Castile’s novelistic rankings. It is still, over 500 years after its composition in 1499-1502, a masterpiece of Western literature. Arguably, it also could lay claim (according to Otis Green in his” Spain and the Western Tradition”) to being the first novel or “t...more
John David
This review may contain spoilers.

“Celestina” is one of those literary peculiarities that you might not have had the pleasure to be introduced to if you had not taken a course in Spanish literature. I first ran across the title in the Dedalus European Classics series, which has a lot of similarly obscure and wonderful things, including Georges Rodenbach and Gustav Meyrink. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that a more mainstream publisher like Penguin had the same translation, by Peter...more
Katsumi
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Leo
This play was written by Fernando Rojas in the year 1499. It is a wonderful play about love and tragedy. Calisto fell in love with Melibea who was a beautiful young woman who would inherit a great fortune from her father. Calisto was rich and paid Celestina, an old astute witch of a woman, money so she could make Melibea love him.
Calistos servants, Sempronio and Parmoneo were in cohuts with Celestina but she kept all the gold for herself. When she defaulted on her deal Sempronio kills her.
María Sola
La verdad es que no soy mucho de clásicos. La historia en general me gusta bastante, me parece entretenida y enrevesada, además que pensando en la época que se publicó fue todo un escándalo.
Lo que para mi ha hecho que le baje la nota y demás es la forma de hablar de los personajes, o más bien la forma de escribir del autor, ya que el libro está escrito en castellano antiguo y me ha costado lo mío entenderlo todo.
En general está bien pero la forma de escribir ha sido un gran problema.
Audrey
Pienso que me tolerancia para historias melodramaticas esta aumentando, porque este libro (como El Carcel de Amor) me daba risa mas que me enojaba. Desde luego, hay criticos que dicen de ambos libros que son parodias. Tal vez es por eso que me gustan. Da un retrato interesante de la clase baja de la edad media (aunque casi todos los personajes son tipos). Es un retrato de la sociedad bastante pesimista, en que todos los personajes estan motivados por el sexo o por el dinero--normalmente los dos...more
DeLys
One of the "must reads" of Spanish literature, this book represents both the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance in Spain. The character of Celestina is the basis of one of the three literary types from Spanish literature, although with Don Quijote and Don Juan. I've taught it multiple times and am always amazed by how much my students resonate with the issues raised in the book.
Isabel
Nunca me han gustado este tipo de libros, y menos cuando te hacen leerlos en el instituto. Pero pensé: "No puede ser tan malo". Pues me equivocaba.
La historia en sí no es que esté mal, pero es un libro que se hace muy pesado tanto por su vocabulario como por los monólogos que se montan los personajes (que luego resulta que no te enteras de nada). Será un clásico español y todo lo que se quiera, pero a mi se me ha hecho muy pesado terminar de leermelo.
Amentalmute
Otro trauma durante el colegio. Fue mi primer acercamiento sin ninguna advertencia al castellano antiguo y me costó una eternidad comprenderlo, por tanto mi comprensión y atención se iban de mí cuando abría el libro.
Ricardo
I am reading this once again as I teach it to my students this semester, and once again I am impressed by the shocking modernity of this extraordinary book. I'm also pleased to see how accessible Patricia Finch's edition is to advanced Spanish students. The text seems to be giving them a lot less trouble than it did me, when I read it for the first time.
Pili
Lo estoy terminando, en la version "gordita"

Y pensar que muchos piensan que ser Celestina es buena onda....naaaaa! Celestina era putinga, brujilla, hacia abortos y era mas turbia que el Mapocho!
Nacho
Al principio se hace muy (pero que muy) cuesta arriba por el escollo del castellano antiguo y es difícil leer más de diez páginas de una tacada. Según vas acostumbrándote, cada vez influye menos y, al final, te dejas atrapar por la historia y por unos personajes que son memorables. Me ha encantado, pero, aun así, tengo que reconocer que varias veces he estado a punto de ceder a la tentación y dejarlo sin acabar en la estantería.
Perséfone
Estoy leyendo esto para mi clase de literatura española y... no. Llevo dos capítulos y estoy que me duermo.

ACTUALIZACIÓN:
Lo aburrido no se va. La historia es tan aguada que sigue dando ganas de dormir. No me gustó.
Anuar
Leí tres(!) veces La Celestina. La primera vez cuando cursé Literatura Española I, las dos restantes en sendos exámenes a los que no me presenté. Bueno, no sé a quién pueda interesarle esa insignificante estadística personal, es sólo que me sorprende a mí mismo y quería dejar alguna constancia(?) de ello. De más está decir que, a pesar de tratarse de una obra de teatro, tiene mucho de novela, es una colección de refranes y dichos populares, etc.
Silvia Llopis
This character is full dramatic connotations, this old prostitute show us the world of the prostitute and the sale of the sentiments, through traps and lies.
Jane
No acostumbro a leer esta clase de libros, clásicos pero tuve que hacerlo por la escuela.

Al fin y al cabo, me sorprende decirlo, me gustó.
Douglas Echenique Zambrano
Una trajicomedia algo pesada para mi gusto con una manera de redacción muy similar a la de un guión lo que hace que pierda sentido para mi una historia.
Lo más interesante sin duda alguna es todo lo que gira al rededor de la celestina, sus múltiples profesiones aunque la que más resalta es la de hacer virgos. Su manera de ver la vida.
Daniel Domenech
The Spanish version of Romeo and Juliet, having arrived in fact over a century earlier. A good story overall, but one I'm not that fond of.
Bruno
The historical importance of this book is undeniable
La impoertancia histórica de este libro es innegable
Aby Gimeno
No es que esté mal pero se me hizo muy pesado... No veía el momento oportuno para dejarlo.
Ro Capriles
I read it ten years ago and understood squat. Now I found it hilarious xD
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Fernando De Rojas was a Castilian author about whom little information is known.

Fernando de Rojas is known for writing La Celestina (originally titled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea) in 1499. It describes a tragic love affair, and is seen as the beginning of Spain's literary Renaissance. Although the work was published anonymously, the author revealed his name and famous birthplace in an acros...more
More about Fernando de Rojas...
Comedia de Calisto y Melibea: Hacia "La Celestina" Anterior a Fernando de Rojas Estado Y Política En América Latina Pornoboscodidascalus Latinus (1624): Kaspar Barth's Neo-Latin Translation of Celestina

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“O world, world when I was younger I thought there was some order governing you and your deeds. But now you seem to be a labyrinth of errors, a frightful desert, a den of wild beasts, a game in which men move in circles…a stony field, a meadow full of serpents, a flowering but barren orchard, a spring of cares, a river of tears, a sea of suffering, a vain hope.” 4 people liked it
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