The general in his labyrinth
The general in his labyrinth ( Spanish: El general en su laberinto ) is a novel by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner for literature Gabriel García Márquez from 1989.
From Bogotá , Simón Bolívar , the liberator of large parts of South America from Spain , began his last journey in May 1830. It leads him down the Río Magdalena to the village of Soledad, very close to the Caribbean Sea . Bolívar dies on December 17th of the travel year in the country house San Pedro Alejandrino - a few kilometers inland from Santa Marta .
action
| chapter | Side in the used edition |
time | place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 11 | 8th of May | Bogotá |
| 2 | 55 | 1st day of travel | Facatativá , Guaduas |
| 3 | 94 | May 15 | Honda , Puerto Real de la Cruz |
| 4th | 135 | May 21 | Mompox , Zambrano |
| 5 | 176 | Turbaco | |
| 6th | 218 | June 16 | Cartagena de Indias |
| 7th | 257 | 5th September | Turbaco, Soledad |
| 8th | 300 | November December | Soledad, Santa Marta, Alejandrino |
del Libertador (Bolívar on the deathbed)
- The history
The narrator looks back to the hero's early childhood. Three-year-old Simón has a dream of a voracious donkey at home at the Hacienda San Mateo near Caracas . A few years later the boy reads one book after the other eagerly under the guidance of his teacher Simón Rodríguez . At the age of 19, he married María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro y Alayza. Happiness is short-lived. The young woman dies.
Karin Schüller has a chronology of the edition used: “Simón Bolívar and his time. Historical outline ”attached. Looking back on the years before the narrated time, 1783–1829, can also be found in abundance in the text of the novel, and understandably more complex than in the abstract. From the abundance, only a few are selected: in 1819 the Spanish viceroy Juan Sámano fled Bogotá , packed with gold treasures from the indigenous people . The assassination attempt on September 25, 1828 on Bolívar is mentioned several times in the text; the first time in the first chapter.
In the story told (see below) Bolívar is on the way to exile in Europe, but ultimately remains in the country. Nobody believes his escape from America in 1830, which he threatened for the first time in 1824 in Pativilca. After he had been dying in the wilderness north of Lima , he got up and won two decisive victories in the struggle for the liberation of Spanish America at Junín and Ayacucho together with his friend Field Marshal Sucre . On January 20, 1830, Bolívar had taken it seriously and proposed Sucre as his successor at the constituent assembly. It was probably on the occasion that he had made General Urdaneta an enemy. On March 1st he had chosen Don Domingo Caycedo as his successor and left the seat of government silently. Bolívar had given up years of fighting the separatists. For example, General Páez wanted to separate Venezuela from Greater Colombia as early as 1827 .
- The history
Bolívar claims that he no longer has any friends. The students of Bogotá no longer want to hear about “Bolívar's idea of integration” in the South American countries Venezuela , Colombia, Ecuador , Peru and Bolivia . The former president of Bolivia, Colombia and dictator of Peru does not wear a badge of rank as he leaves Bogotá for Cartagena de Indias. In the port city he wants to take a ship to Europe. London would be a possible port of destination.
Bolívar is escorted by a small group of loyal professional soldiers from Venezuela. They are Creole aristocrats trained in “prince schools ”. In the course of this last trip to Bolívar it turns out that the veterans in the general's entourage even endure defeat - their warlord has abdicated. Although - bitterness is already spreading. The general has easily given up the common life's work. The increasing uncertainty when traveling to nowhere becomes unbearable, however.
Before his final departure from Bogotá, Bolívar had received his confidante and lover Manuela Sáenz . He had met the daughter of a wealthy Creole and a married Spaniard in Quito in 1822 . She was promoted to colonel on his general staff. On the way Bolívar learns that Manuela continues to fight for the common goals from Bogotá. He calls the fighter his "lovable fool". In addition to Manuela, Bolívar had slept with countless women and had no children.
“I'm not me anymore,” admits Bolívar soberly when hardly anyone on the road recognizes him. After all, he was the most famous man in the new South American republics mentioned above. While he spends the night here and there, however, there are numerous encounters with notables. When in such a conversation a comparison of his person with Napoleon suggests, he fends off this by saying that he had not been crowned. On the river trip, Bolívar becomes emaciated, turns greenish-yellow and has to lie in his hammock with a high fever, but sometimes he gets up. When Bolívar says goodbye to Hondo, for example, he dances the night away.
The servant José Palacios stayed by the general's side from the first to the last day of the journey. The former slave, son of an African and a Spaniard, has fought in all the battles of Bolívar in the front line. The general meets droves of vagabonds on his way. They are released from his army and complain to their general. In retrospect, Bolívar justifies all remembered victims: “Unity has no price.” For some opponents, Bolívar's departure for Europe is an occasion to return home from a foreign country. But not for Santander . The former friend and Vice President of Colombia is cautiously waiting in Europe. On March 2, 1831, in Florence, he learned of the death of his adversary and took half a year to return. General Santander has every reason to be careful. As an accessory to the assassination attempt on September 25, 1828 on Bolívar, he had escaped the death penalty and was pardoned after being exiled to Paris. It was Manuela who had saved Bolívar from the attacking assassins.
Behind Zambrano, the river traveler Bolívar is met by a steamship belonging to the Commodore Elbers . The active German named his watercraft "El Libertador". Bolívar reads the lettering under the railing and reminds himself: “If I think that's me!” Finally arrived in Cartagena, it turns out that there is currently no ship leaving for Europe in the port and one has to wait for Bolívar's pass become. The general's travel budget has become empty. On the way he had been too generous with former members of his army. He frankly confesses his plight to the Prefect of Cartagena and promptly receives money. From Cartagena, Bolívar corresponds to London. Three of Cartagena's dignitaries visit the general and are stunned to see that Bolívar has shrunk. In front of the visitors, Bolívar pokes fun at his successors in the presidency. Marshal Sucre is mentioned in the conversation of the gentlemen. The very knowledgeable narrator speaks at the point in between: Sucre is currently on the way from Bogotá to Quito. Throughout the novel, it turns out that the word Bolívar from the lost friends (see above) turns out to be an exaggeration. At least in Sucre he kept a true friend. On his mentioned trip on June 4th, he was ambushed in the Berruecos forest and murdered. As the guests from Cartagena say goodbye, Bolívar hears a whispered word that made him look like a dead man. However, towards the end of the talks, the supposedly dead man still expressed himself fairly vividly that he regretted the rebellion against the Spaniards. Because one rebellion would lead to the next - a process, apparently without end.
June 22nd is a lucky day. Bolívar is holding his passport with the exit permit in his hands. The feeling of freedom is subdued at the sight of the rundown city of Cartagena. The general curses the overpaid "shit independence" of Spain. Bolívar is compelled to stay by the faithful. Because General Urdaneta is planning a coup. At the news of Sucres death, Bolívar spits blood and no longer wants to go to Europe. When General Páez actually separated Venezuela from Greater Colombia, Bolívar sent 2,000 men against the separatist. Bolívar's troops don't get very far. The fortunes of war have left the great general of yore. Urdaneta actually comes to power on September 5th, to the delight of Manuela, and offers Bolívar the presidential chair of the Republic of Colombia. Bolívar refuses. He does not want to come to power with a coup d'état. When the general has to watch how Greater Colombia falls apart, he still wants to travel. He is loved in Jamaica , he says. One of his doctors wants to cure the lungs, recommends air changes to the terminally ill person and moves him to a trip to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to a sugar cane plantation in La Florida de San Pedro Alejandrino. Bolívar takes the sea route via Santa Marta. The other doctor diagnoses chronic malaria . The dying man seeks distraction from the pain with a view of the snow-capped Sierra peaks. The smell of hot molasses reminds Bolívar of the sugar cane plantation at home in San Mateo near Caracas. So he orders that his remains are to be transferred to Venezuela and dies on December 17th.
Quotes
- Bolívar: "Nobody is more liberal than me."
- Shortly before Bolívar dies, he complains: "How do I get out of this labyrinth!"
Form and interpretation
Bolívar's agonizing departure from the great idea of freedom in the unity of all of South America is symbolized with a river trip; by descending from the Colombian highlands to the Atlantic; performed as a quarreling swan song for a life of warrior full of privation.
The hero's name is mentioned only once in the whole book: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios. Otherwise the general is always mentioned. The one-off mention of the father, Colonel Juan Vicente Bolívar, should also be mentioned. The father had been accused of raping people from the household several times . Then there is talk of Bolívar's “African blood”. A great-great-grandfather on his father's side had fathered one of the general's ancestors with a slave.
José Palacios, the general's loyal old servant, said several times: "What my master thinks, only my master knows." Accordingly, the narrator does not seem omniscient, but he keeps the historical overview. For example, at the beginning of the second of the eight chapters, Bolívar separates forever from his lover and fellow campaigner Manuela Sáenz. From now on the beloved is only mentioned in flashbacks. Towards the end of the last chapter, the narrator quickly tells the reader the end of the beloved. Manuela Sáenz turns fifty-nine and dies of the plague. Her hut - with Bolívar's irreplaceable letters in it - is set on fire by the health police. The narrator allows himself further glimpses into the future. Although the novel ends with the hero's death in 1830, the brief description of the Santander episode (see above) is extended to 1831.
In the examples just mentioned, an unmistakable weakness in form of the novel becomes apparent. There are two narrative levels - named The Story and The Prehistory at the top of the “Plot” chapter of this article . The narrator keeps changing from the story to the prehistory. When reading inattentively, it is sometimes impossible to tell the two levels apart because they have not been separated by tense or other simple means.
Occasionally the reader is pleased with one or the other poetic objection - for example: "The light was golden flour, ..." Or - a glass full of fireflies in the hand of a local person lights up at night.
reception
- Ploetz dedicates the last chapter of her García Márquez biography to the novel. Bolívar failed with his dream of American unity because neither the bourgeoisie in the Spanish-speaking countries nor the powerful in the other countries were interested in such an America at the time. In 1830 Bolívar got the passport from the Colombian Congress. In the novel, the protagonist is confronted with himself, i.e. with the legend of the hero. Bolívar was afraid of the firm bond with a loved one. The rattling of the base of the Bolívar monument was not only resented by García Márquez in Latin America. In addition, the overemphasis on history damaged the novel.
- García Márquez went to the hacienda where Bolívar died when he was seven. Saldívar, who imposes excessive restraint on the novel in his book, interprets the Río Magdalena in the text as "the river of death and destruction".
Translations
The book was translated into Arabic, German, Swedish and Portuguese in the year of publication. In the years 1990 to 2000, translations into French, Turkish, Basque, Hebrew, Japanese, Persian, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Chinese, Dutch, Romanian, Vietnamese and Albanian followed.
literature
Text output
- Used edition
- The general in his labyrinth. Novel. From the Colombian Spanish by Dagmar Ploetz. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-462-02013-7 (with two map sketches by Erwin Butschan on the front and rear inner flap, each double-sided, drawn with reference to text)
Secondary literature
- Dagmar Ploetz : Gabriel García Márquez. Rowohlt, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-499-50461-8
- Dasso Saldívar: Journey to the Origin. A biography of Gabriel García Márquez. Translated from the Spanish by Vera Gerling, Ruth Wucherpfennig, Barbara Romeiser and Merle Godde. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-462-02751-4
Remarks
- ↑ García Márquez dedicates his book to Álvaro Mutis , who gave him the idea for the text (edition used, p. 7).
- ↑ García Márquez writes that Bolívar freed a territory - five times the size of Europe - from Spanish rule (edition used, p. 54, 12th Zvu).
- ↑ García Márquez immediately withdraws the pronounced assertion of Bolívar's childlessness and asserts the opposite (edition used, p. 79, 1. Zvu). When asked, Bolívar gives his servant José Palacios the number of women he loves. Not counting the “one-day loves”, he would have 35 women (edition used, p. 203, 7th Zvu). A scene in the book recalls these times. Bolívar summons a young girl and lies down next to her that night. Feeling the youthful heat is enough for the patient (edition used, pp. 236–237).
- ↑ When he died, Bolívar only weighed 39 kilograms (Edition used, p. 182, 1st Zvu).
- ↑ The narrator notes that with his coup d'état in 1830, Urdaneta instigated the first of 49 civil wars that Colombia went through up to the end of the 19th century (edition used, p. 257, 13th Zvo).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edition used, p. 131, 6th Zvu
- ↑ eng. Facatativá
- ↑ eng. Guaduas
- ↑ Spanish Zambrano
- ^ Spanish Turbaco
- ↑ eng. Antonio Herrera Toro
- ↑ Edition used, p. 125, 5. Zvo and also p. 173, 3. Zvo
- ↑ Karin Schüller in the edition used, pp. 353–359
- ↑ eng. Juan José de Sámano y Uribarri
- ↑ Edition used, p. 26, 6. Zvo
- ↑ eng. Pativilca
- ↑ eng. Domingo Caycedo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 323, 1. Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 359, entry anno 1829
- ↑ Edition used, p. 99, middle
- ↑ Edition used, p. 61 middle
- ↑ Edition used, p. 108 center. See also p. 162, 13. Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 132, 6th Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 168, 3. Zvo
- ↑ eng. José Fernández Madrid
- ↑ Domingo Caycedo, eng. Joaquín Mosquera (Edition used, p. 184 middle)
- ^ Spanish Berruecos
- ↑ Edition used, p. 222 middle
- ↑ Edition used, p. 99, 4. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 344, 18. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 54, 15. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 169, 8. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 235, 13. Zvu
- ↑ for example used edition, p. 25, 6. Zvu or also p. 232, 18. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 131, 6th Zvu
- ↑ Edition used, p. 335, 3rd Zvu to p. 336 below
- ↑ Edition used, p. 190, 13. Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 236
- ↑ Ploetz, pp. 119–126
- ^ Saldívar, p. 91, middle
- ^ Saldívar, p. 151, 10. Zvo
- ↑ eng. The General in His Labyrinth