Granadian Literature: The three-cornered hat, by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

The blog, in addition of using it to give advice and recommendations when visiting the city, we would love to also be an opening door to the rich culture of Granada. For this reason, you will be able to find articles related to culture: traditions, folklore, and, of course, recommendations for books by authors who were born in the city.

If you ask any person from Granada about Pedro Antonio de Alarcón, the first thing that will come to mind is a street full of bars and pubs. And, without detracting from the good times, drinks, and tapas that you can enjoy there, today we want to talk about the writer Pedro Antonio de Alarcón and, more specifically, his work El sombrero de tres picos (The three-cornered hat).

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (or Pedro Antonio Joaquín Melitón de Alarcón y Ariza) lived in the 19th century; He started studying law but dropped out and started trying to carve out a path as a journalist. Not only did he publish a large number of short stories and novels, but he was also a war journalist, wrote travel diaries, was a minister, deputy, academic at the Royal Language Academy...

Since you know something more about him, we are going to focus on his work The three-cornered hat. It was published in 1874, and the historical setting is in 1800, in a town near Granada, but the exact location is unknown. The protagonists are two millers and a chief magistrate who falls in love with the miller; They are Don Lucas (the husband), Seña Frasquita (the wife), and Don Eugenio de Zúñiga (the chief magistrate), who is the character who wears the three-cornered hat (or tricorn, which by the way plays a very important role in the novel).

The chief magistrate wants to seduce the wife of the miller, so he hatches a plan: the chief magistrate (Don Eugenio) convinces the mayor to order Don Lucas to appear and detain him for the whole night. Being, therefore, Seña Fresquita alone, Don Eugenio goes to her house, with the bad luck that before entering, he falls into a water well. Seña Fresquita, upon discovering that it is not her husband who has fallen but the chief magistrate, goes to notify the mayor. We don't want to tell you much more so as not to spoil the story, but from here everything is a series of catastrophic and, we could say, funny events. The novel is realistic, it is written in a simple way and it is very entertaining. If you want to share a book that you like by an autor that you know of the city, write us a comment or send us an email!

The novel is realistic, it is written in a simple way and it is very entertaining. If you want to share a book that you like by an autor that you know of the city, write us a comment or send us an email!