Juan Gallardo rises to the position of a torero from a humble background. His passion and courage for bull-fighting makes him a hero and determines his destiny. But is that all to Gallardo's life? Excerpt: "It was a number of years ago, not long after he had been given «the alternative» in the bull-ring of Madrid, that he came to lodge at a certain hotel on Alcalá Street where his hosts treated him as if he were one of the family, and the dining-room servants, porters, scullions, and old waiters adored him as the glory of the establishment. There, too, he had spent many days wrapped in bandages, in a dense atmosphere heavy with the smell of iodoform, in consequence of two gorings, but the unhappy recollection did not weigh upon him…"
Скачать книгу «The Blood of the Arena» Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
