Celestina

By Fernando de Rojas

Celestina, madam of the local brothel, is commissioned by a nobleman to help him seduce a beautiful young woman. Using all her wiles and with the help of two greedy servants she goes about weaving her spells... with tragic results.
Fernando de Rojas' play Celestina has been a pivotal work of European culture since 1499, when it was first performed, and the character of the ever resourceful procuress Celestina has inspired artists from Goya to Picasso.
This version of Celestina, translated by John Clifford, was first performed at the King's Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2004, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
This edition of the play, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, includes an introduction by John Clifford.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Oct 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781788502368

Fernando de Rojas

Fernando de Rojas (c. 1465/73, in La Puebla de Montalbán, Toledo, Spain – April 1541, in Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, Spain) was a Spanish author and dramatist, known for his only surviving work, La Celestina (originally titled Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea), first published in 1499. It is variously considered 'the last work of the Spanish Middle Ages or the first work of the Spanish Renaissance'.

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Reviews for Celestina

[bostonbibliophile · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

i am in the minority but i found it almost unreadable.

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed reading Fernando de Rojas' "La Celestina," which is essentially a play about a man named Calisto who hires a former prostitute (who is the woman to see if you need a love potion, re-virgination, or other assorted trickeries) to help him capture the heart (and nether regions) of Melibea. It all ends very tragically for everyone. While the prose wasn't the easiest to read (given it's translated from Spanish and written in the late 1400's,) the story was really fun. It certainly deserves its reputation as a classic.

[tronella_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was depressing to such an over-the-top ridiculous extent that it became entertaining again. I still don't really like reading things in dialogue form, though.

Wikipedia tells me "The book is considered to be one of the greatest works of Spanish literature," which... okay then.

[kirmuriel-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Different Spanish, but one gets used to it. What I don't understand is why didn't Calisto ask her in marriage... different times, different customs