Imperial Anecdotes

Noticias del Imperio

Fernando Del Paso, a great writer admired by Marquez and winner of the 2015 Cervantes Prize, spent ten years creating this panoramic literary masterpiece, the most Latin American novel since "One Hundred Years of Solitude". ◎ Editor's recommendation★ Fernando Del Paso is a heavyweight writer after the Latin American literary boom and winner of the 2015 Cervantes Prize. His creative achievements are comparable to those of masters such as García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes, and Vargas Llosa.
In 2007, the Mexican magazine NEXOS gathered 60 writers and critics, including Gabriel García Márquez, to select the best novels of the past 30 years. "Imperial Anecdotes" ranked first. This book boasts the intricate techniques of "Ulysses" and the grandeur of "War and Peace."
★ "Imperial Anecdotes" brings together all the literary expression techniques and forms to date and integrates them. The most eye-catching part of the book is Carlotta's monologue in the odd-numbered chapters. In addition to the monologue technique, the even-numbered chapters also use many traditional expression techniques, such as ballads, letters, dialogues, objective narration, etc. Therefore, it can be said to be a panoramic novel focusing on the style and features of a specific historical period.
★ Fernando del Paso once said in an interview in his later years, "I am married to literature, but my lover is history." This sentence can be used to describe "Imperial Anecdotes". The novel narrates the rise and fall of the Second Mexican Empire. In the author's pen, history and imagination are intertwined, reality and illusion, reason and madness are mixed together, breaking through the limitations of time and space. It is a panoramic literary masterpiece that is earlier than Bolaño's "2666".
★ It was published simultaneously in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Spain in 1987, and immediately caused a great response. It was printed five times in Mexico alone within half a year.
★ Fernando del Paso lived at the turning point of Mexican and Latin American literature. He inherited the predecessors of the literary boom generation and inspired writers such as Bolaño. He was obsessed with great writers such as Rabelais, Sterne, and Joyce, but he was not only an imitator, but also an innovator of narrative form.
Synopsis: This novel recounts the history of the Second Mexican Empire and the tragic fate of its emperor. In 1861, President Benito Juárez halted Mexico's foreign debt repayments. This decision provided the pretext for then-French Emperor Napoleon III to send an occupation army to Mexico, hoping to establish an empire there led by a member of the European Catholic royal family. Archduke Fernando Maximilian of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty was chosen to undertake this mission. The Archduke arrived in Mexico in 1864 with his wife, Princess Carlota of Belgium. In 1867, the empire collapsed, and the Archduke was executed.
The novel consists of twenty-three chapters. The twelve odd-numbered chapters consist of the maddened Queen Carlota's stream-of-consciousness ramblings, set during her final year. The eleven even-numbered chapters are arranged chronologically, each with three sections, each exploring different perspectives (from influential political figures to ordinary street vendors) and employing various techniques to present a different aspect of history. In short, this book integrates and synthesizes all the literary techniques and forms available to date, resulting in a panoramic novel that focuses on the landscape of a specific historical period.
Media Recommendation: This work blends past and future, reality and fantasy, passion and indifference, reason and madness, breaking the limitations of time and space, freely cutting and splicing together to paint a series of unique and novel historical scenes. ... This work, because of its multi-angle, multi-layered, and all-encompassing portrayal of history and life, is considered a truly panoramic novel.
——A History of Latin American Fiction
◎ Celebrity Recommendation Fernando del Paso combines tradition and modernity, contributing to the development of the novel, just as Cervantes did in his time.
—— Cervantes Prize Award Citation I am obsessed with reading Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Fernando Del Paso, and Vicente Rainiero—their methodological innovations and formal pursuits.
—Ricardo Piglia (Argentine novelist)
Fernando del Paso, the genius who reimagined Mexican history.
—— Pepe Pulido The author of "Imperial Anecdotes" rediscovers history, love and curse, fiction and creation, fantasy and narration in his own unique way.
—Angers Mastreta (Mexican novelist)
Fernando del Paso believed that the rules of the language he used to write were not limitations but starting points, and that writers should not "supply language" but discover what can be done with it.
— Yuri Herrera (Mexican writer)
"Imperial Anecdotes"...is a monumental work that would be daunting to modern readers. The novel consists of two levels: historical and fantastical. The historical section unfolds in strict chronological order, narrating the establishment of the so-called Second Empire in Mexico during the French invasion. The fantastical section, the core of the work, is both a variation on history and a reverie that transcends history. This section primarily unfolds through the inner monologue of Empress Carlotta, wife of the Second Emperor and Duke Maximilian of Austria, during a period of mental distress.
— Chen Zhongyi (Director of the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Spanish translator)
"Imperial Anecdotes" is a historical novel that recounts the rise and fall of the Second Mexican Empire, but the author's true purpose is to depict the people who played a role in history through history. This massive work, over 600,000 words, boasts a richness of content and a diversity of forms rarely seen in Latin American literature, truly a magnificent and vibrant canvas.
—— Li De'en (scholar, researcher at the Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Imperial Anecdotes successfully combines history and literature. ... The author's profound knowledge and artistic talent have won wide acclaim in the Western literary world.
— Zhao Deming (Spanish literature translator, Peking University professor)

2019-05-01

四川人民出版社

Houlang, Houlang Literature

816

9787220112317