The General in His Labyrinth

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Hughes, Ben (2010), Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World, Osprey . At the age of forty-six General Simon Bolivar, who drove the Spanish from his lands and became the Liberator of South America, takes himself into exile. He makes a final journey down the Magdalene River, revisiting the cities along its shores, reliving the triumphs, passions and betrayals of his youth. Consumed by the memories of what he has done and what he failed to do, Bolívar hopes to see a way out of the labyrinth in which he has lived all his life. . ..

Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents' courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles that include El general en su laberinto (1989), or The General in His Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of Love and Other Demons. Foer, Franklin (May 2006), "The Talented Mr. Chávez", Atlantic Monthly, 297 (4): 94–105 , retrieved 2008-03-22 .General Simon Bolívar, known in six Latin American countries as the Liberator, is one of the most revered heroes of the western hemisphere; in García Márquez’s brilliant reimagining, he is magnificently flawed as well. The novel follows Bolívar as he takes his final journey in 1830 down the Magdalena River toward the sea, revisiting the scenes of his former glory and lamenting his lost dream of an alliance of American nations. Forced from power, dogged by assassins, and prematurely aged and wasted by a fatal illness, the General is still a remarkably vital and mercurial man. He seems to remain alive by the sheer force of will that led him to so many victories in the battlefields and love affairs of his past. As he wanders in the labyrinth of his failing powers - and still-powerful memories - he defies his impending death until the last. Palencia-Roth, Michael (Winter 1991), "Gabriel García Márquez: Labyrinths of Love and History", World Literature Today, 65 (1): 54–58, doi: 10.2307/40146120, JSTOR 40146120 . ( EBSCO subscription required.) his dreams'' is won by the misfortunes, and the monster at the center of his '' labyrinth'' gets him in the end. of consolation. . . . ''Now we are the widows,'' he said. ''We are the orphans, the wounded, the pariahs of independence.'' . . . into the hands of the unruly mob and then will pass into the hands of almost indistinguishable petty tyrants.'' He foresees the perils of debt: ''I warned Santander that whatever good we had done for the nation

Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2009-12-02 18:10:59 Bookplateleaf 0006 Boxid IA107417 Boxid_2 CH105101 Camera Canon 5D City New York Donor The initial idea to write a book about Simón Bolívar came to García Márquez through his friend and fellow Colombian writer Álvaro Mutis, to whom the book is dedicated. [3] Mutis had started writing a book called El último rostro about Bolívar's final voyage along the Magdalena River, but never finished it. At the time, García Márquez was interested in writing about the Magdalena River because he knew the area intimately from his childhood. [4] Two years after reading El Último Rostro, García Márquez asked Mutis for his permission to write a book on Bolívar's last voyage. [5]

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Following the success of One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), García Márquez decided to write about the "Great Liberator" after reading an unfinished novel by his friend Álvaro Mutis. He borrowed the setting—Bolívar's voyage down the Magdalena River in 1830—from Mutis. García Márquez spent two years researching the subject, encompassing the extensive memoirs of Bolívar's Irish aide-de-camp, Daniel Florencio O'Leary, as well as numerous other historical documents and consultations with academics. The novel revolves around the fictionalized figure of Bolívar and includes many minor characters who are part of the General's travelling party, whom he meets on his journey or who come to him in his memories and dreams of his past. Sometimes they are identified by particular quirks or tied to small but significant events. They include, for instance, General José María Carreño, a member of the entourage, whose right arm was amputated after a combat wound, [37] and who once revealed a military secret by talking in his sleep. [38] At other times, they are prostheses for the General's now failing powers: Fernando, for example, the General's nephew, is "the most willing and patient of the General's many clerks", [39] and the General wakes him "at any hour to have him read aloud from a dull book or take notes on urgent extemporizations". [31] One of the least developed of the minor characters is the General's wife, María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alayza, who had died, readers are told, in mysterious circumstances shortly after their marriage. The General has "buried her at the bottom of a water-tight oblivion as a brutal means of living without her"; [40] she only fleetingly enters his memories in the book's last chapter. [41] According to Menton, she is "upstaged" by Manuela Sáenz, whose later history García Márquez recounts as if she instead were the General's widow. [41] María Teresa's death, however, marked the General's "birth into history", [40] and he has never tried to replace her. José Palacios, his oldest servant, found him floating naked with his eyes open in the purifying waters of his bath and thought he had drowned." García Márquez 1990, p.3

Having previously written shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layers of fantasy. Lynch, John (2007), Simón Bolívar, A Life, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-11062-3 .

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gusto, heaping detail upon sensuous detail, alternating grace with horror, perfume with the stench of corruption, the elegant language of public ceremony with the vulgarity of private moments, the rationalistic clarity of Bolivar's thought with the malarial intensity of his emotions, but tracing always the main compulsion that drives his protagonist: the longing for an independent and unified South America. This, according to Bolivar himself, is the clue to all Manuela Sáenz is the General's long-time lover, his last since the death of his wife, 27years earlier. Her character is based on Simón Bolívar's historical mistress Doña Manuela Sáenz de Thorne, whom Bolívar dubbed "the liberator of the liberator" after she helped save him from an assassination attempt on the night of September 25, 1828. [24] García Márquez's fictional portrait stimulated a reassessment of this historical figure, who is increasingly seen, according to Venezuelan historian Denzil Romero, "not just as a mistress but as the intelligent, independent, forceful woman she was". [25] In the novel, she is described as "the bold Quiteña who loved him but was not going to follow him to his death". [26] The General leaves Manuela Sáenz behind, but throughout the novel he writes to her on his journey. She also attempts to write letters to him with news of the political situation, but the mail carriers have been instructed not to accept her letters. Like the historical figure on whom she is based, [27] the fictional Manuela Sáenz is married to Dr. James Thorne, an English physician twice her age. [28] The historical Manuela Sáenz left Thorne after Bolívar wrote declaring his undying love for her. [29] In the novel she is characterized as astute and indomitable, with "irresistible grace, a sense of power, and unbounded tenacity". [30] General Francisco de Paula Santander [ edit ] The leading character in the novel is "the General", also called "the Liberator". García Márquez only once names his protagonist as Simón Bolívar, the famous historical figure, whose full title was General Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, on whom the General's character is based. The novel's portrait of a national and Latin American hero, which challenges the historical record, provoked outrage in some quarters on its publication. [14] Each book by Mr. Garcia Marquez is a major literary event. Each has also been quite different from its predecessors, and the new novel, ably translated by Edith Grossman, is no exception. It is set in the past, but to call it a historical novel would