Mientras ellas Duermen.

by Javier Marías

Fantasmas y dobles, un capitán del ejército de Napoleón, una muerta que reclama a su amante vivo, tres hombres perseguidos por una maldición cubana, un mayordomo neoyorquino experto en venganzas, un mendigo que fue rey, un adorador voluminoso y su adorada «belleza irreal»... Javier Marías es capaz de alcanzar en sus cuentos un grado de tensión y profundidad sólo propio de los grandes maestros del género. ?A la vez clásicos y enteramente modernos, estos logradísimos cuentos imponen, sin abrumar, su placer y su diversión.?

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Spain, Spanish Literature, Literature, Collections, Contemporary

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Javier Marías was a Spanish novelist, translator, and columnist. His work has been translated into 42 languages. Born in Madrid, his father was the philosopher Julián Marías, who was briefly imprisoned and then banned from teaching for opposing Franco. Parts of his childhood were spent in the United States, where his father taught at various institutions, including Yale University and Wellesley College. His mother died when Javier was 26 years old. He was educated at the Colegio Estudio in Madrid.

Marías began writing in earnest at an early age. "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga", one of the short stories in While the Women are Sleeping (2010), was written when he was just 14. He wrote his first novel, "Los dominios del lobo" (The Dominions of the Wolf), at age 17, after running away to Paris.

Marías operated a small publishing house under the name of Reino de Redonda. He also wrote a weekly column in El País. An English version of his column "La Zona Fantasma" is published in the monthly magazine The Believer.

In 1997 Marías won the Nelly Sachs Prize.

Reviews

[Jonfaith]

Suppose someone twisted their back at work. Sure, it hurt but it was the end of the day. Going home, suppose some guy noshed on bread and hummus and watched some of the Arsenal/West Brom match. Discomfort was on the rise. Adjourning to the bedroom, the sad sack aquiesced to the attentions of his Mrs -- Ibuprfin and icy hot topical patches ensued. Cracking the cover of this garish hardcover, escape and relief were foremost on the menu. What followed was a seasonal array of doppelgängers and mirrored existences, almost Borgesian but still mired in the sarortial vortexes of Marias' Madrid. There is alwasy an air of slight and social pugilism at play: perhaps this collection could be noted as Pride and Paradox or, maybe, When to Wear Socks? I do not know. It was read to the end and merciful sleep arrived.

[Getzemaní]

Tal vez elegí una mala puerta de entrada al universo de Marías. No sé por qué pensé que entrar por cuentos sería buena idea para familiarizarme con el estilo del autor. Aquí el primer error: los estilos son diferentes entre sí, obedecen a tiempos, impulsos y obsesiones diferentes. Haciendo un esfuerzo podría decir que el núcleo del libro es el fantasma y lo que es más, el fantasma como un otro que es espejo de sí. Segundo error: soy malo para leer cuentos. La cosa empeora cuando no encuentro un hilo al cual aferrarme. De todos modos diré que en su mayoría me gustaron; fui de la risa a la reflexión, de la reflexión al sueño, del sueño al erotismo, de nuevo la risa, la reflexión, el erotismo y el sueño. En textos como “El espejo del mártir” no sé qué intentaría hacer; alguien por ahí dice que es borgiano, yo la verdad lo dudo porque los cuentos de Borges no me duermen. Sí, es pedante y arrogante, pero sin mostrar el universo dentro de la página como hace el pedante y arrogante Borges.
Hay una clara influencia del realismo mágico, así que se obligó a pensar en Latinoamérica sin duda (¡el último fantasma es Emiliano Zapata!) pero estamos muy lejos de García Márquez y Carlos Fuentes, que yo creo que leía. Muy faulknerianos todos. Sin embargo, era muy joven y seguiré con el joven Marías porque voy por su primera novela. Últimamente tengo obsesión con las primeras novelas de los autores.

Más o menos así calificaría los cuentos:

- La vida y la muerte de Marcelino Iturriaga (3).
- La dimisión de Santiesteban (3).
- El espejo del mártir (1).
- Portento, maldición (4).
- El viaje de Isaac (2).
- El fin de la nobleza nacional (2).
- Gualta (3).
- La canción de Lord Rendall (4).
- Una noche de amor (4).
- Un epigrama de lealtad (3).
- Mientras ellas duermen (5).
- Lo que dijo el mayordomo (4).
- En la corte del Rey Jorges (2).
- Serán nostalgias (3).

[Justin Evans]

In which I learn, definitively, that Marias is a novelist, one of the best alive, and can't write short stories to save his life. The title story is excellent; the very nice, well worked out conceit (man films his out-of-his-league girlfriend constantly, the narrator tries to work out why) lets Marias use the same tricks and skills he uses in his novels. The others feature rather too many doppelgangers and ghosts for my taste and, I assume, for the taste of anyone who made it out of the eighties alive, and it isn't clear to me if I mean the pomo 1980s, or the Henry Jamesian 1880s. The point is, the other stories are obviously squibs, and only for Marias completists. Of which I am one.

[jeremy]

of the ten stories that make up while the women are sleeping, javier marías' second collection to be translated into english, all but one of them were written before he was forty (including "the life and death of marcelino iturriaga," written when he was only fourteen!). published in spanish as mientras ellas duermen, this translation (rendered by the incomparable margaret jull costa) omits four of the stories featured in the original edition. while the women are sleeping contains some strong pieces, yet, as a whole, it is an imperfect and uneven work (as such collections often tend to be). for an already ardent admirer of marías' fiction, however, there is much to applaud. the title story, "the resignation letter of señor de santiesteban" and "an epigram of fealty" (a nod to the legendary kingdom of redonda and its third king john gawsworth, king juan i) are the collection's sharpest pieces.

while the women are sleeping will be of greatest interest (and, perhaps, greater enjoyment) to those already familiar with the spaniard's previous books. as most of these stories predate the completion of the accomplished novels that first brought marías international acclaim, they provide a unique glimpse of his earlier forays into writing (requisite reading, of course, for anyone interested in understanding the complete scope of an author's talent). javier marías is often mentioned to be a strong contender for literature's most prestigious award, the much-coveted nobel prize. as a prolific writer still shy of his sixtieth birthday, he certainly has the body of work to justify such an honor.

but that won't be my fault: the books we don't read are full of warnings; we will either never read them or they arrive too late.

[Marc Lamot]

Javier Marias is voor mij in eerste instantie de schrijver met de heerlijk langoureuze zinnen die in eindeloze cirkels ronddraaien en slechts een minimum aan handelingen dekken, maar zich in de eerste plaats op de letterlijk ‘malende’ gedachten van de protagonisten richten. Dat die proustiaanse aanpak zich niet echt leent tot korte verhalen, blijkt dan ook uit deze bundel. Slechts in enkele verhalen kan je de stijl herkennen waarmee Marias zo’n hoge toppen scheerde, vooral dan in zijn meesterwerk, de trilogie ‘Jouw gezicht morgen’; het zijn niet toevallig de langere verhalen, zoals het titelverhaal ‘Terwijl zij slapen’.

We leren hier met andere woorden een enigszins andere Marias kennen, eentje die verrast met onder meer puntige gothic-verhalen à la E.A. Poe en paranoia-dromen in de trant van Gogol; ook Borges is natuurlijk nooit ver weg. Het niveau is uiteraard erg ongelijk, maar niet helemaal onverdienstelijk. Klinkt dat een beetje minnetjes? Misschien wel, want – zoals gezegd – van de grootmeester verwacht je herkenbaarheid, en die is er maar in beperkte mate. Tot mijn favorieten behoren het al genoemde “Terwijl zij slapen”, “Gualta”, “Bloed van een lanssteek”, en "In de ongewisse tijd".

Tenslotte: er is wat verwarring over de precieze samenstelling van dit boek. Het gaat namelijk terug op de Spaanse editie van 2012, die ‘Mala Índole: Cuentos Aceptados y Aceptables’ werd genoemd. Dit zijn dus zeker niet ALLE verhalen van Marias, maar een selectie, door hemzelf trouwens gemaakt. De verwarring wordt nog groter omdat de titel van dit boek ‘Terwijl zij slapen’ zowel de titel is van één van de verhalen, als van de eerste bundel korte verhalen die Marias uitbracht in 1990, met bovendien nog een aangevulde editie in 2000. De andere bundel waar deze collectie vooral op steunt, heet Cuando fui Mortal, en kwam uit in 1996. Geen wonder dat de meeste sites verkeerde edities bij elkaar zetten.

[Antonio Coelho]

Valem os 2 últimos contos.

[Mack]

the greatest fears of Spanish men: ghosts, doppelgängers, and aging women

[Tim Lepczyk]

While the Women Are Sleeping is the first work I've read by Javier Marias.  It's a collection of short stories spanning over 30 years of writing.  I tend to think of collections like this as greatest hits album.  A writer's been around for a while, re-releases a bunch of stuff, it takes minimal effort, and generates some interest.  That may not be a fair comparison.  Though written in vastly different times, the stories are linked together by their tone and subject matter.  Whether it's a difference in translation, culture, or age, the stories don't read like contemporary fiction, but more like something written in the late 19th or early 20th century.

The title story, "While the Women Are Sleeping" sets a mood similar to Poe or Hitchcock.  The narrator and his wife have been watching a couple at the beach while on vacation.  The man whom they observe is obese and much older, he also constantly films his young, attractive girlfriend.  Through a change in setting, the narrator meets the older man and asks him about his activities.  The older man replies that he adores the woman, and wants to capture the last days of her life.  Is she ill, the narrator asks?  No, is the answer.  From there a conversation ensues about love, life, and death.  The story is slow to develop, but high in tension and discomfort.

"A Kind of Nostalgia Perhaps" also visits the ideas of life and death.  In this story a ghost haunts an old woman, but only the young woman who reads to her can see the ghost.  The young woman falls in love with the ghost, who never speaks to her, and develops a relationship of sorts.  The story asks the reader to question time.  How do we perceive the passage of time?  How do we remember events?  Who is haunting whom?  It's a beautiful and sad critique on growing old and finding love.

A story that differs somewhat is "Gualta," in which a young, charming, highly successful man encounters a colleague in the same corporation who is exactly the same as the narrator.  The encounter leads him to a realization that he hates himself.  The narrator tries to revise his personality and makes an effort to become coarser.  Unexpectedly, the other man has suffered from the same identity crisis.  Strong for the most part, the story concludes with an ending low on satisfaction as it loses momentum and direction.

Overall, the stories are entertaining and work well as a collection; however, in terms of being great stories they fall short.  Some of the stories like, "An Epigram of Fealty," and "Issac's Journey" seem concept driven with little impact.  While stories like "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga" develop slow enough that the writing seems to value style over accessibility.  The best story out of the collection is "While the Women Are Sleeping" and you can read it online through the New Yorker.  Though the other stories may not hit all the points to be classified as great short stories, they are full of creativity and worth reading.

[Zuberino]

They say that Javier Marias is going to win the Nobel Prize one of these days. If that is true, it will have to be on the strength of his other books, because this particular collection of short stories does not really stack up. It spans three decades of the writer's career and reveals what is evidently a very long-standing fascination with the spooky and the supernatural. Doppelgangers and unquiet ghosts abound; they are present even in what the writer informs us was his very first short story ("Marcelino Iturriaga"), written at the ripe old age of fourteen and narrated from beyond the grave. The best of the lot is the title story which is also the longest and therefore allows full play to Marias' peculiar variety of expansive complexity. (Gotta love those rolling, uncoiling sentences...) The story recounts an older man's meticulous, murderous obsession over his much younger lover, masquerading naturally as attentive loving devotion. Other stories that stood out for me were "The Resignation Letter of Senor de Santiesteban" and "What the Butler Said", whereas stories like "Lord Rendall's Song" and "An Epigram of Fealty" felt schematic, almost formulaic in their execution. Time to move on, then, to his longer work and see what the fuss is all about.

[Carloesse]

Conoscevo Marias solo di fama, ma non l’avevo ancora affrontato con la lettura, e forse partire da una raccolta di racconti, essendo la sua fama incentrata sui romanzi, non è stato il modo più corretto. E forse è anche per questo che ho tardato nel recensirlo, avendo tra le mani anche un romanzo in corso di lettura (“Il Secolo”) e preferendo farmi almeno un’idea anche sul Marias romanziere prima di esprimere un qualsiasi parere.

Ecco: a me sembra che Marias sia uno scrittore di classe eccelsa; colto, forbito, di un’eleganza di scrittura certamente altissima, e dallo stile complesso, labirintico, ricercato. Tutto questo me lo rende però artificioso e freddo. Non riesce a catturarmi, ad appassionarmi, a trascinarmi dentro le sue trame che mi rimangono distanti, anche se talvolta, in alcune pagine in particolare, riesce ad accendere la mia curiosità che però presto si smorza in una vaga sensazione di artefatto.
Per questo, anche nella lettura di questi racconti, ho proceduto a sbalzi, tra improvvise accelerazioni e successivi nuovi rallentamenti.

Tra le 3 e le 4 stellette.
Nel dubbio non mi sbilancio troppo e ne concedo solo 3 (pur se con molti, molti più, più …)

[Ends of the Word]

Javier Marias is not primarily known as a writer of gothic fiction. This slender collection brings together a number of “dark tales” which he wrote over the past decades, including a number of fine ghost stories. Marias is a noted Anglophile and he tends to avoid shock and horror in favour of an elegant and understated style of narration more typical of the English ghost story tradition. The fear which haunts many of the (male) protagonists is a very “human” sense of insecurity, especially in their relationship with women – tellingly, the narrators of two of the stories face an identity crisis after they meet their doppelgänger. In this light, the title of the book assumes a metaphorical significance. An interesting modern take on an established genre.

[Mohammad]

اغلب داستان‌های این مجموعه ایده‌های خوبی داشتند ولی از ایده‌ها جلوتر نمی‌روند و در بعضی مواقع کش دادن بی‌مورد داستان‌ها حوصله سربر بود. اما دو داستان «An Epigram of fealty» و «The life and death of marcelina iturriaga» را دوست داشتم و دومی از قضا خیلی اثرگذار بود و خواندنش به تحمل کش دادن‌های باقی داستان‌ها می‌ارزید.

[Deanne]

Some disturbing, some spooky short stories. However not my favourite Marias, it still gave me a chance to see what this writer is capable of.

[George]

3.5 stars. I enjoyed the ten, quirky, strange, intriguing, uneven range of short stories. Readers new to Marias should begin with the very good, masterful, 'A Heart of White'. These stories were written between the period 1968 to 1989.
I particularly liked the following stories:
'While the Women Are Sleeping' - during an island holiday the narrator, accompanied by his wife, notice a man of 50 years of age videoing a young woman, aged 18, whom the man obviously adores. One sleepless night the narrator has an interesting private conversation with the 50 year old man.
'One Night of Love' - a husband reads a mistresses love letters to his now dead father. The mistress begins writing to the husband.
'An Epigram of Fealty' - the manager of a second hand book store with rare books in the front display window confronts a poor man who claims to be the previous owner of one of the valuable books in the display window.
'What the Butler Said' - the narrator is stuck in an elevator for half an hour with a butler of a rich woman. The butler tells the narrator about why he is learning black magic. He seeks revenge against the rich woman.

An entertaining, worthwhile read.

[তানজীম রহমান]

This is my first encounter with Marias' work, and I'm suitably impressed. His short stories have a quality that I always look for but rarely find: they feel like fables or fairy tales set in modern times. In this collection of stories, Marias takes us on a tour of memory, history, personal identity and the dreamlike nature of reality. He does this using the imagery of the long dead ghost of a rebel, an unexpected twin and many other almost-magical devices.
I really didn't like the titular story though.

[Tânia]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

[Can Lejarraga]

barras manin

[Emily Anderson]

It’s like if women were momentum for plot points and not really multifaceted human beings.

[Sheila]

Mirroring, ghosts, and doubles are present in these haunting short stories by Spanish author Javier Marías. His narrators are usually male and experiencing some kind of identity crisis.

I came to this author looking for works translated by Margaret Jull Costa whose translations always seem to read smoothly to me. A list of her translation is avilable at <"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margare... All Marías' works are translated by her. These are the first of Marías' work that I have read.

While the Women are Sleeping
In the title story, a man films his beautiful young girlfriend every day on the beach, while she preens herself in a mirror;

Gualta
This story is available in English translation online

What would you do if you met your double, not just in looks but in actions, disposition, character? Javier Santín meets Xavier de Gualta, his double, at a company business meeting. He experiences himself as object for the first time and hates himself. He begins to consciously change his appearance and behaviour to differentiate himself. Finding his doppelganger has done the same, what ensues is a tit-for-tat series of changes. Where will it end? Who will give up?

One nigt of Love
Lord Rendall's Song
An Epigram of Fealty
A Kind of Nostalgia Perhaps
in "A Kind of Nostalgia Perhaps", an old woman waits for the ghost of a national hero. "

The Resignation Letter pf Señor de Santiesteban
The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturruaga
He asks for the reader's kindness towards "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga" as it was written when he was 14 – but this is disingenuous on his part as it is a wonderful short story about a man talking after his death.
Isaac's Juorney
What the Butler Said

[Joshunda Sanders]

The writing is beautiful and haunting. This is a collection of his stories that had been previously published, though. So, while it's not new writing, it was new to me, and I dug it. It was sort of dark, lots of death and ghosts. But it's been a long time since I read a good ghost story and there's a great one in this collection that I adored.

[Shankar]

The author's dark side keeps showing up all through the stories in this volume. Not recommended as a first in his series but a wonderful set of curious events put together as stories as is the author's wont.

[Tom]

Creepy short story. Reminded me of The Comfort of Strangers in a way.

[Ligeia]

“Sebbene tutta questa storia potrebbe anche essere solo un bugia, qui su quest'isola, mentre le donne dormono”

“Non sempre si ricorda quello che si vuole nè si dimentica quello che si desidera”

[Paula Mota]

#enabrilleemosenespañol

[kelly]

not a major work from marías but i really loved the title story & 'gualta'.

"We all have our own life to lead, and we only have the one life, and none of us is prepared not to live that life according to our own desires—apart from those who have no desires, they’re the majority actually. People can say what they like, and speak of abnegation, sacrifice, generosity, acceptance and resignation, but it’s all false: the norm is for people to think they desire whatever comes their way, whatever happens to them, what they achieve as they go along or what’s given to them, and they have no original desires. But whether those desires are preconceived or not, we each care about our own life and, compared with that, the lives of others matter only insofar as they’re interwoven with and form part of our own life, and insofar as disposing of those lives without consideration or scruple could end up affecting our own; there are, after all, laws, and punishment might follow."

[Ole Pogie]

A collection of ten, mostly, strange but excellent short stories. The favorites of the stories for me were:
While the Women are Sleeping, about a man who had seen a fat balding middle aged man at the beach with a much younger beautiful woman. That night he couldn't sleep and saw the man sitting at the pool of the hotel they were staying at and got into a conversation with him. The man told him about the young woman and said that someday he will have to murder her.
Gualta, about a man who meets his exact double.
Lord Rendall's Song, a very strange story about a man who is returning from war after being a prisoner of war. When he gets to his home he looks through the window and sees himself strangling his wife.
The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga, about a man who is telling about his own death.

[Nate]

Five stars for the titular story. 1 star for the quasi sexist cover design , and the embarrassment of reading it in public lol.

3-4 stars for the average story in here.

Love Marías. His novels are so wonderful. His short stories seem to allow more play and experimentation; and it’s fun to see him engage in more supernatural or Borges-esque tales than he does in his longer stuff. (I also get the impression he didn’t write short prose as often. As this collection is slim and spans 20 years of writing).

It’s hit or miss but mostly good. A couple incredible ones. The last one is both brutal and touching. Also, an EXCELLENT companion piece to Dark Back of Time, a novel I’ve read this year that talks in depth of many of the stories contained.

Not sure how well this would work for first time readers of his; but I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if I slowly spaced these stories out over a very long period of time. (I myself not being a big short story reader).

[Paul Barnes]

[Vintage Books] (2011). SB. 129 Pages. Purchased from Waterstones.

Briefly introduced by Marias (2010); ten short stories: (1968) to (1998).

The earliest (“The Life and Death of Marcelino Itturiaga”) was the author’s first published work, written when he was just 14. Predictably, it’s the weakest entry, though precocious.

The titular piece - “While the Women are Sleeping” (1990) - is the best of a good lot.

Unsettling, thought provoking, twisted…

[Stokrotka]

Jakby się dało, to dałabym 0/10. Losowe zdarzenia generator, okropne opowiadania.

[Joel Buck]

The kind of book that makes me miss being in a classroom setting where I can discuss it with smarter people than I. Lots of overlapping fascinations between the stories—doubles, ghosts, recording and being recorded. This is short and I flew through it.