Pioneering in the Pampas [Hardcover]

Richard A. Seymour (Author), Juan C. Casas (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2002

Pioneering in the Pampas ENGLISH- 156 pages. An actual historical racconto of the vicissitudes of two young British gentlemen in the Argentine pampas of 1865. In the Author's own words, "... the simple narration of the difficulties which beset the settler in the first few years of his enterprise, more particularly when he has been tempted to fix himself outside the older settlements, and to be, as in the case of the writer and his companions, in the truest sense of the word, a Pioneer". Pioneering in the Pampas constitutes the historical basis which inspired Juan Carlos Casas to write his novel "Fraile Muerto"

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Richard Seymour's writing reflects an outstanding memory and a love for detail that make reading Pioneering in the Pampas a journey into the experience of everyday life in the Pampas Indian frontier during the early eighteen hundreds.

Were the gauchos honest workers or did they try to work as little as possible? How were the English-type horse races held in Rosario organized? How the weak commitment to religion of the Gauchos, allowed them to "delegate" church attendance to women delegating also the burden of advocating on their behalf at doomsday. Why the immediate requirement to dig trenches surrounding the houses and corrals as a defense measure against Indian attacks...

With the educated and fluent prose of an "average" nineteenth century Oxford scholar, the geography of the Pampas and the times before railroads and immigration waves acquire amazingly realistic characteristics.

Soon enough the conquest of the desert by President Roca in 1880 would change the character of the place, though strangely Richard Seymour seems unwilling to stand witness to it. Without explicitly mentioning the detail in his book, he departed for England in1869 where –in the Rectory of Kinwarton, Warwickshire– he devotedly relived his experiences by writing this book.

The vivid memories and the ever present strict Victorianism of his stance regarding relations with the opposite sex, strikingly never mentioned in spite of his youth and circumstance –a man in his early twenties dwelling with bachelor friends in a savage land where they must have undoubtedly encountered Creoles, Indians and some scarce British female subjects– altogether with the implicitly painful and unexplained abandonment of it all, sparked my mind up to the point of writing "Fraile Muerto", the novel, bridging the notorious sex absence gap with an imaginary underlying plot.

All said, I must add that bringing back to print Richard Seymour's book is my most sincere homage to the man who preceded me in the love for the strange solitudes of the Argentine Pampa's soul.

Juan Carlos Casas

Buenos Aires – December 2002

From the Author

PREFACE.

The writer of the following pages is well aware that the only apology that is worth anything for the publication of a book must be found in its contents. If his readers do not find these such as to justify the presumption which asks for their perusal, no preface, however ingenious, can be of any worth. And yet he is anxious to bespeak the favour of those under whose eyes this volume may chance to fall, by briefly saying, that while he grants the superior merits, in almost every respect, of such works on the La Plate regions as Mr. Hinchcliff´s, Mr. Hutchinson's, Mr. Latham's, and though last in its appearance, by no means least in value, the work of Señor Sarmiento, the present enlightened President of the Argentine Republic, the claim of this volume, if it has any claim at all, lies in this - that the ground it traverses has been scarcely touched by those writers, inasmuch as it is confined almost exclusively to the simple narration of the difficulties which beset the settler in the first few years of his enterprise, more particularly when he has been tempted to fix himself outside the older settlements, and to be, as in the case of the writer and his companions, in the truest sense of the word, a Pioneer.

R. A. S.
KINWARTON RECTORY:
August 25, 1869.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Stockcero (December 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 987205066X
• ISBN-13: 978-9872050665
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,168,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)