The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother

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The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother (Org. / Span .: La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada ) is a short story by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez , which was written in 1972. The German translation was written by Curt Meyer-Clason and appeared in 1974.

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After the death of her parents, the fourteen-year-old Eréndira lives with her grandmother in an old and lonely country house, which was built by Amadís, her grandfather, and the grandfather and father Eréndiras, who was also called Amadís, had served as a smuggler's base and contained many valuables . The girl takes care of her grandmother and takes care of the household. When she falls exhausted into her bed after a hard day at work and does not put out the candle, but only puts it on the bedside table, it falls over after a gust of wind. The subsequent fire destroys the house, the two women remain unharmed. The grandmother blames Eréndira for the destruction, demands that she pay for the damage and forces her into prostitution . There she meets the son of a Dutch diamond smuggler, Ulysses, and they both fall in love. The first joint escape plan fails when they are caught up with by their grandmother, Ulysses' father and the military. The second attempt to escape involves the murder of the grandmother, which Ulysses is supposed to carry out at Eréndira's request. However, this only happens in the third attempt. After the attempted poisoning and an explosion caused, Ulysses finally kills the grandmother with a knife. After the bloodbath, Eréndira appropriates her gold doublet and disappears into the desert.

review

“This story shows Marquez's madness very clearly. If so many men want to sleep with poor Erendira that tents and entire camps have to be pitched outside, and there are sleuths, jugglers and fairground stalls, this is grossly exaggerated, but it is precisely in this exaggeration of the stories that the man's genius shows (who can think of that? ?!?) and it gives you the highest level of reading pleasure, and when he uses the inhumanity of the grandmother with her green blood as a symbol, Marquez shows us once again that his stories - as already mentioned - spit on realism, and he is only concerned with the statement, even if he breaks boundaries with his allegories, they only leave the conventional, but never without meaning and always in relation to this or that topic. "

- buchkritik.at

expenditure

  • The increíble y dreary historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada. Siete cuentos
  • The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother. Seven stories , Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-462-01762-4 . The edition also contains the short stories
    • A very old man with huge wings (1968, Org. Un señor muy viejo con unas alas enormouses)
    • The Sea of ​​Lost Time (1962, Org .: El mar del tiempo perdido)
    • The most beautiful drowned man in the world (1968, Org .: El ahogado más hermoso del mundo)
    • Permanent death beyond love (1968, org .: Muerte constante más allá del amor)
    • The last voyage of a ghost ship (1968, Org.El ultimo viaje del buque fantasma)
    • Blacáman the Good, Wonder Seller (1968, Org .: Blacamán el bueno vendedor de milagros)
    • The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother
  • Die Erzählungen , dtv , Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-12166-1
  • The unbelievable and sad story of the simple-minded Eréndira and her heartless grandmother , audio book , Der Audio Verlag , Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3898138413 , spoken by Jan Josef Liefers .

filming

The short story was filmed in 1982 by Ruy Guerra under the title The unbelievable and sad story of the innocent Eréndira and her heartless grandmother .

Opera

The opera Eréndira by Violeta Dinescu , based on a libretto by Monika Rothmaier, was premiered in Stuttgart in 1992 . The grandmother was played by Catherine Gayer , Catriona Smith sang the title role.

Trivia

Eréndira and her grandmother are mentioned in 1967 in the book Hundred Years of Solitude by the same author. Márquez also brings in characters from the short stories Blacáman the Good, Wonder Seller and A Very Old Man with Giant Wings (both 1968).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ buchkritik.at , accessed on August 3, 2010
  2. ↑ Claus Spahn: The wind of misfortune. In: Die Zeit , March 27, 1992, accessed on August 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ Eréndira. In: Archive of the Munich Biennale , accessed on August 3, 2010.