A Shameful Revenge and Other Stories

These eight novellas, drawn from collections first issued in 1637 and 1647, are set among the Spanish nobility of the Golden Age. In story after story a woman is seduced with a promise of marriage, raped, or confined by a husband or brother acting in the name of honour; some heroines return deception with violence, others are walled up, mutilated, or killed. The title tale belongs to that pattern of sexual injury and reprisal. Zayas's narrators treat male honour codes as a trap for women and present convent, cunning, or revenge as the available exits. The mode is the baroque exemplary tale, not the modern psychological story.

Quarter bound in red cloth, white paper boards patterned with a marbled design by John Piper. Red endleaves. Red page tops. Mottled grey slipcase.