The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel (Cambridge Companions to Literature) [Hardcover]

Efraín Kristal (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0521825334 | ISBN-13: 978-0521825337

Novels from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin America are read in translation all over the world. This Companion offers a broad overview of the novel's history and analyzes in depth several representative works by, for example, Gabriel García Márquez, Machado de Assis, Isabel Allende and Mario Vargas Llosa. Indispensable to students of Latin American studies, of comparative literature and of the development of the novel as genre, the book features a comprehensive bibliography and chronology and concludes with an essay about the success of Latin American novels in translation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'No corner of the continent remains untouched in the Cambridge Companion...This much needed book also illuminates the literary contribution to the Spanish-speaking nations of the western hemisphere and Portuguese-speaking Brazil, while offering a broad overview of the novel's history and a sense of its heterogeneity." -- Times Literary Supplement

Book Description

Novels from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin America are read in translation all over the world. This Companion offers a broad overview of the novel's history and analyses in depth several representative works by, for example, Gabriel García Márquez, Machado de Assis, Isabel Allende and Mario Vargas Llosa. Indispensable to students of Latin American studies, of comparative literature and of the development of the novel as genre, the Companion features a comprehensive bibliography and chronology and concludes with an essay about the success of Latin American novels in translation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521825334
• ISBN-13: 978-0521825337
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,951 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The novel is alive and well and living in Latin America, May 15, 2007

By 

Antonio Gonzalez (Amarillo, TX U.S. A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel (Cambridge Companions to Literature) (Hardcover)

This book is part of the distinguished series of Cambridge Companions to Literature. It consist of 17 essays. Rather than following the anticipated chronological evolution of works, the book is presented in topics: history, heterogeneity, gender and sexuality themes. A more author specific presentation follows on the work of others such as Donoso, Fuentes, Gallegos, Cortazar, to mention a few.

A core sectiion consists of a discussion of sixs novels. The so called authors creating the "boom of the Latin American Novel. This section is perhaps of the greatest interest to the general reader. It includes the work of Machado de Assis and Clarise Lispector(Brazil, Juan Rulfo, (Mexico), Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia), Isabel Allende (Chile) and Mario Vargas LLosa (Peru). And can serve as touchstone for a grand view of the new style in prose and story telling thematic innovation. Grammatically pure, these artist write crystaline prose: pleasing, docile, musical, poetic, personal. Just as direct is the fury of the violent, carnal and inevitable political ramifications of the Latin American Novel.

Spanish is in itself a docile, sweet language. Just being able to read these novelists in the original justifies learning this language.