Name: The Seven Madmen (New York Review Books Classics)
Price: 34.88 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Roberto Arlt
ISBN: 9781590179147

portada The Seven Madmen (New York Review Books Classics)

The Seven Madmen (New York Review Books Classics)

Type

Physical Book

Author

Roberto Arlt

Introduction by

Julio Cortázar

Translated by

Nick Caistor

Publisher

New York Review of Books

Year

2015

Language

English

Pages

272

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

20.3 x 12.7 x 1.3 cm

Weight

0.27 kg.

ISBN13

9781590179147

Synopsis "The Seven Madmen (New York Review Books Classics) "

A weird wonder of Argentine and modern literature and a crucial work for Julio Cortázar, The Seven Madmen begins when its hapless and hopeless hero, Erdosain, is dismissed from his job as a bill collector for embezzlement. Then his wife leaves him and things only go downhill after that. Erdosain wanders the crowded, confusing streets of Buenos Aires, thronging with immigrants almost as displaced and alienated as he is, and finds himself among a group of conspirators who are in thrall to a man known simply as the Astrologer. The Astrologer has the cure for everything that ails civilization. Unemployment will be cured by mass enslavement. (Mountains will be hollowed out and turned into factories.) Mass enslavement will be funded by industrial-scale prostitution. That scheme will be kicked off with murder. "D'you know you look like Lenin?" Erdosain asks the Astrologer. Meanwhile Erdosain struggles to determine the physical location and dimensions of the soul, this thing that is causing him so much pain. Brutal, uncouth, caustic, and brilliantly colored, The Seven Madmen takes its bearings from Dostoyevsky while looking forward to Thomas Pynchon and Marvel Comics.

Roberto Arlt

(Author)

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Roberto Godofredo Christophersen Arlt fue un escritor, periodista y dramaturgo argentino, figura central de la literatura urbana del siglo XX en el Río de la Plata. Su obra rompió con el refinamiento literario de su época para introducir una prosa áspera, directa y cargada de tensión social. Arlt escribió desde los márgenes: personajes frustrados, ciudades opresivas y una mirada feroz sobre el fracaso, la violencia y el deseo de escapar. Su lenguaje, deliberadamente imperfecto, fue parte del golpe.

Su primera novela, El juguete rabioso, inauguró un modo de narrar que puso en escena al antihéroe moderno, atrapado entre la ambición y el derrumbe. Arlt no buscó consuelo ni elegancia: expuso la miseria moral y material sin anestesia. Su influencia se dejó sentir mucho después, cuando quedó claro que había visto antes y más hondo. Incómodo, irregular y brutalmente honesto. Por eso sigue vivo.

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Julio Cortázar

(Introduction by)

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Writer, professor, screenwriter, and Argentine translator. He is one of the great figures of the "boom" of Latin American literature. Cortázar identifies with Surrealism through the study of French authors. He stands out for his miscellanies or the “almanac” genre, where he mixes narrative, chronicle, poetry, and essay. His works are recognized for their high intellectual level and for their way of dealing with feelings and emotions.

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