- Don Juan Tenorio, José Zorrilla, 1844.
One of the books that, together with 'El Burlador de Sevilla', contemplate the world-famous myth of Don Juan, the famous Casanova of the city of Seville.
His fame has reached the point of even using the term 'Don Juan' to refer to a womanizing man.
Despite being the most read version and the best-known author, it is not true that José Zorrilla was the first to talk about the womanizer Don Juan. However, as the play is represented today, it is thanks to the fact that this author structured it from a perspective that is easier to understand.
- El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, Tirso de Molina de 1630.
As we have mentioned before, this book in conjunction with 'Don Juan Tenorio', includes the myth of Don Juanito. However, this literary work is the first to be published and to mention this character.
It is attributed to the author Tirso de Molina but there are no reliable sources that really confirm it.
When the play is performed, it is done in two parts, referring to the two works:
First part is divided into four acts. It happens in a single night.
- First act: Debauchery and scandal.
- Second act: Dexterity.
- Third act: Desecration.
- Fourth act: The Devil at the gates of Heaven.
Second part is divided into three acts. It also happens in a single night, but five years after the events of the first part:
- First act: The shadow of Doña Inés, with six scenes, takes place mainly in a cemetery and in the cemetery.
- Second act: The statue of Don Gonzalo, with five scenes, takes place mainly in the house of Don Juan.
- Third Act: Mercy of God and apotheosis of Love, with four scenes.
- Carmen, Prosper Mérimée. 1845.
Carmen is a work known worldwide but not by its original author, Prosper Mérimée, who wrote this short novel in 1845 and which was published in the Revue des deux mondes in 1847.
The best-known version is Georges Bizet's opera, The Opera Carmen.
The author of the novel Prosper Mérimée, confessed that he got the inspiration to write his work in one of the stories María Manuela Kirkpatrick, Countess of Montijo, told him during one of his visits to Spain in 1830.
Carmen is the ultimate expression of the femme fatale of the literary world, as opposed to the male version Don Juan Tenorio.
In the story, our protagonist is a worker in the Royal Tobacco Factory of Sevilla. Building that continues to exist as the Rector of the University of Seville and faculties such as: History, Geography and Philology.
- Una columna de fuego (A Column of Fire), Ken Follet, 2017.
New work that culminates the famous trilogy of one of the most famous writers of historical novels and suspense, Ken Follett.
The author of the first two The Pillars of the Earth (first part) and A World without End (second instalment) finally brings to his devoted readers the outcome of the saga with this one that arrived in Spain and Latin America in September 2017.
It is a story of spies set in the sixteenth century, Golden Age in Spain and, above all, when the City of Seville turned into the capital of the world thanks to its inner port.
Although most of the plot is set in an imaginary scenario, the Spain of Felipe II will be present and will appear in places like the manufacture of arms in Seville. In fact, the author visited monuments in Seville such as the Golden Tower, the Royal Alcázar or the Cathedral, seeking inspiration for the novel.
- Tradiciones y leyendas sevillanas (Sevillian Costums and Leyends), José María de Mena Calvo, 1985.
In this book, the Andalusian writer José María de Mena, tells us the most and least known legends of the city of Seville from a realistic and historical perspective giving greater value to the historical and cultural heritage of the Andalusian capital.
Legends such as:
- How Hercules founded Seville
- The two sons of Julio César
- Historical tradition of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina
- The Tower of Don Fabrique
- Origin of NO8DO
- Historia de Sevilla (History of Seville), José María de Mena Calvo, 1985.
As a great historian and professor, José María de Mena could not contain the desire to write with his own hands his version of the history of Seville based on his great research and his own wisdom.
From the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, with the loss of Ispal (Phoenician name of the city) to fall into the hands of the Romans who baptized the city as Híspalis, the conquest of the Visigoths in the fifth century because of the fall of the Roman Empire, through the long Muslim occupation from the year 711 until reaching 1248; When King Ferdinand III of Castile snatched the city from the Muslims The Christian phase began.
- Memoria de cenizas (Ashes Emory), Eva Días Pérez, 2005.
Eva Díaz Pérez has a degree in Information Sciences from the University of Seville. She is currently an opinion columnist for the newspaper El Mundo. She has obtained the City of Huelva Journalism Award (1999) and in 2003 and 2004 she was a finalist for the Francisco Valdés National Journalism Prize.
The story told by this young Andalusian author in her work Ashes Memory, takes place in the Seville of the 16th century and it has present scenarios as the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo and the House of Isabel Baena.
Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, Autos de Fe of the Holy Office, siiners, heretics, tortures... among all that boiling, it started to emerge one of the major reformist foci that produced in the King Prudent, Felipe II, big headaches. In the Monastery of San Isidoro del Campo, in its beautiful cloisters, in its shady cells and in the recollection of prayers, fresh currents of humanist thoughts were born.
- Venganza en Sevilla, de Matilde Asensi, 2010.
The author, a journalist and Spanish writer dedicated to send her readers to an intrepid journey through her historical novels and adventures.
Revenge in Seville is the second novel of her trilogy, being the first Tierra Firme (2007) and the outcome La Conjura de Cortés (2012).
You only need to read the synopsis of it to fall into the net of Matilde Asensi and fall in love with the protagonist, Catalina Solís.
Synopsis: 'Seville, 1607. Catalina Solís, the protagonist of Tierra firme, will carry out her great revenge in one of the richest and most important cities in the world, the Seville of the 17th century. She will thus fulfill the oath made to her adoptive father to end the Curves, thanks to a spectacular multiple revenge based on deceit, seduction, force, surprise, mourning, medicine and gambling. Accompanying her in this risky adventure are friends from Tierra firme and some rogue survivors, willing to give their lives for such a legendary character. '
- La leyenda del ladrón (The leyend of the robber), Juan Gómez Jurado 2012.
"Frantic, ambitious, pulsating. It evokes a violent and dangerous world, pure action in 650 pages, one of the books of the year".
DAILY ABC
"An old-fashioned adventure novel, one of these that made us dream in our youth, and with a narrative tension that does not fall at any time, one of the bestsellers of the year."
César Coca, EL CORREO
These are some reviews made by some Spanish media that, in fact, lack words to describe the feelings that are experienced through this novel.
Ingredients: Seville of the 16th century, reign of Felipe II. Beggars and prostitutes, nobles and merchants, swordsmen and thieves, a place where love, passion and betrayal reign. The story revolves around a child who is miraculously saved from death.
There is no way to escape the tasty dish that the Spanish writer has brought us deliciously prepared.
- El elefante de marfil (The Ivory Elephant), Nerea Riesco, 2010.
With her novel, Nerea Riesco wants to take the reader back in time, to the Seville of the 18th century, a story that begins after dragging events that took place five centuries ago, at the time of The Conquest, between Alfonso X The Wise, son of King Fernando III and Axafat.
With this story full of love, adventure and intrigue where great decisions are made with the heart, we will see the world through the eyes of its protagonists: Julia de Haro, León, and their descendants.
