The Project Gutenberg EBook of Woman Triumphant, by Vicente Blasco Ibanez

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Woman Triumphant
(La Maja Desnuda)

Author: Vicente Blasco Ibanez

Translator: Hayward Keniston

Release Date: July 19, 2006 [EBook #18876]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN TRIUMPHANT ***

Produced by Carlo Traverso, Janet Blenkinship, and the
Online Distributed Proofreaders Europe at
http://dp.rastko.net.

WOMAN TRIUMPHANT

(LA MAJA DESNUDA)

BY

VICENTE BLASCO IBANEZ

TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH

BY

HAYWARD KENISTON

WITH A SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AUTHOR

[Illustration]

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 FIFTH AVENUE
Copyright, 1920,
BY K. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

_All Rights Reserved_

First printing March, 1920

Second printing March, 1020

Third printing March, 1920

Fourth printing March, 1920

Fifth printing March, 1920

Sixth printing March, 1920

Seventh printing March. 1920

Eighth printing March, 1920

Ninth printing April, 1920

Tenth printing April, 1920

Eleventh printing April, 1920

Twelfth printing April, 1920

Thirteenth printing April, 1920

Fourteenth printing April, 1920

Printed In the United States of America

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION

The title of this novel in the original, _La maja desnuda_, "The Nude
Maja," is also the name of one of the most famous pictures of the great
Spanish painter Francisco Goya.

The word _maja_ has no exact equivalent in English or in any of the
modern languages. Literally, it means "bedecked," "showy," "gaudily
attired," "flashy," "dazzling," etc., and it was applied at the end of
the eighteenth century and at the beginning of the nineteenth to a
certain class of gay women of the lower strata of Madrid society
notorious for their love of dancing and their fondness for exhibiting
themselves conspicuously at bull-fights and all popular celebrations.
The great ladies of the aristocracy affected the free ways and imitated
the picturesque dress of the _maja_; Goya made this type the central
figure of many of his genre paintings, and the dramati