4En una ocasi n, Leopoldo Alas Clar n afirm que Emilia Pardo Baz n era uno de los espa oles que m s saben y mejor entienden lo que ven, piensan y sienten. Tratar con ella es aprender mucho .

La cr tica suele estar de acuerdo en que donde mejor se recoge su habilidad como escritora es, precisamente, en sus cuentos --valientes, modernos, de impecable factura--. Leer estas piezas supone una grata sorpresa.

Eva Acosta, bi grafa de la condesa y una de las mayores especialistas de su obra, ha llevado a cabo una rigurosa selecci n de sus mejores cuentos.

Fant sticos, policiacos, realistas, humor sticos, de misterio, hist ricos o intimistas, esta antolog a constituye una de las cumbres de la narrativa espa ola del siglo XIX.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

"She didn't call brief, fleeting flings 'love.' She didn't call sensuality 'love.' And sensuality doubled her sadness, vague and indefinable."

Leopoldo Alas, also known as "Clar n," once stated that Emilia Pardo Baz n was "one of the Spaniards who know the most and understand the best all that they see, think, and feel. Interacting with her means learning a lot."

Critics seem to agree that where she best demonstrates her skill as a writer is precisely in her short stories--brave, modern, and impeccably wrought. Reading them brings delightful surprises. Eva Acosta, biographer of the countess and one of the great specialists in her work, has carried out a rigorous selection of her best short stories. Whether tales of fantasy, crime, realism, humor, mystery, history, or intimate portraits, this anthology constitutes one of the heights of 19th-century Spanish narrative.