El Cid

In 1928, shortly after his marriage to Ximena Amunategui, and after meeting the actor Douglas Fairbanks, who expressed interest in the possibility of a new swashbuckler, Huidobro began writing his version of the Cid legend as a novel. The result is a highly readable, if slightly arch, version of the story, that casts aside the style of romantic 19th-century historical fiction in favour of more modern approaches and cinematic influences. Style aside, the book can be read a straightforward tale of adventure that sits happily alongside the 1961 epic movie that starred Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren and had thousands of extras. More than one line of the script for that movie sounds as if lifted from Huidobro's novel. The translation by Wells appeared quickly, under the title Portrait of a Paladin in 1931, in both London and New York, and this reprint offers the original version with only some minor edits, together with a new afterword and an extensive glossary to aid with figures, both legendary and genuine, from Old Spain.