Library

A poor boy reaches Salamanca, grows learned, and after a love potion believes he is made of glass. The opening of Cervantes' exemplary novel (1613).

Manrique searches the cloisters of Soria for a woman in white only he has seen. A legend by Bécquer (1862).

A sick hunter in the jungle and a wounded turtle save each other on the road to Buenos Aires. From Jungle Tales (1918).

A gypsy fortune-teller in Granada and the bandit Parrón, whose face no one has seen. A tale by Alarcón (1853).

A sonnet by Rubén Darío: a golden shell found on the beach keeps the murmur of the sea (Songs of Life and Hope, 1905).

A man buys a chimpanzee, sure that apes once chose to stop speaking, and sets out to teach him. From Strange Forces (1906).

Alicia, newly married, fades away in a cold white house, and no one knows why. A tale by Quiroga (1907).

Queen Mab, in her chariot made of a single pearl, finds four poor artists lamenting their lot, and lets fall on them a blue veil of dreams. From Azul (1888).

Segismundo, locked in a tower since birth, asks heaven what crime he committed by being born; and later, what life is. Calderón (1635).

Every Sunday in 1905, Nemo falls asleep and travels to Slumberland, where a princess waits for him; and every Sunday he falls out of bed. Winsor McCay's first six pages.