Ricardo Güiraldes

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Ricardo Güiraldes

Ricardo Güiraldes (born February 13, 1886 in Buenos Aires , † October 8, 1927 in Paris ) was an Argentine writer who became internationally known for his novel Don Segundo Sombra (German: The Book of the Gaucho Sombra), published in 1926.

Life and literary creation

Güiraldes comes from a wealthy family of the landed gentry. His father was a cultured and educated man and influenced Ricardo with his interest in art. When Ricardo was one year old, the family moved to Europe, where he learned French and German as a child . He spent most of his childhood and youth at his parents' estancia in San Antonio de Areco near Buenos Aires. There he experiences the country life of the gauchos first hand, which he later processed in his most famous novel, Don Segundo Sombra .

Güiraldes studies architecture , law and social sciences without completing the degree. In 1910 he undertook extensive trips to Europe, India , Japan , Russia and the Middle East . He stays in Paris, where he access to the French literature of the vanguard place and decides to become a writer. First, however, he gives himself up to the cultural and nightlife of the French metropolis; his literary ambitions remain in the bud.

After returning to Buenos Aires in 1912, he married Adelina del Carril in 1913, the daughter of a noble family in the city. In the same year his first stories appear, in 1915 his first book, the volume of poetry El cencerro de cristal . He was encouraged to do his literary work by Leopoldo Lugones , but was initially unsuccessful.

In 1916 he travels with his wife to the Pacific coast , to Cuba and Jamaica . The draft for the novel Xaimaca , which was only completed in 1923, emerges from the travel notes : the chronicle of a journey from Buenos Aires to Jamaica, during which a love story unfolds discreetly. The autobiographical novel Raucho was published in 1917 : it was the story of a rich Argentine who lost his fortune and health in Paris and longed for the rural areas of his youth.

In 1919 and 1922 Güiraldes returned to Europe with his wife. In 1922 the novel Rosaura appears , a melancholy, ironic, rural romance novel. During this time, an intellectual and spiritual change took place in his thinking: he began to be interested in theosophy and oriental philosophy . In the meantime, with the emergence of the avant-garde movements, especially ultraism , his works have met with broad acceptance in Buenos Aires . In 1924 Güiraldes co-founded the ultraist magazine Proa , which was unsuccessful in Argentina.

The highlight of his literary output is the novel Don Segundo Sombra published in 1926 . Don Segundo is the ideal figure of a gaucho, the Argentine hero of the pampas.

In 1927 Güiraldes made his last trip to Europe. He fell ill with lymph gland cancer ( Hodgkin's disease ) and died in the house of his friend Alfredo González Garaño in Paris. His body is transferred to Buenos Aires and buried in his hometown of San Antonio de Areco.

Works

In the original

Don Segundo Sombra (1926).
  • El cencerro de cristal (1915). Poetry.
  • Cuentos de muerte y sangre (1915). Stories.
  • Aventuras grotescas (1917). Stories.
  • Trilogía cristiana (1917). Stories.
  • Raucho (1917). Novel.
  • Rosaura (1922). Novel.
  • Xaimaca (1923). Novel.
  • Don Segundo Sombra (1926). Novel.
  • Poemas místicos (published posthumously, 1928). Poetry.
  • Poemas solitarios (published posthumously, 1928). Poetry.
  • Seis relatos (published posthumously, 1929). Stories.
  • El sendero (published posthumously, 1932).
  • El libro bravo (published posthumously, 1936). Poetry.
  • Pampa (published posthumously, 1954). Poetry.

In German translation

  • The book of the Gaucho Sombra. With an afterword by Hans-Otto Dill. Berlin: Rütten & Loening 1966. or The story of the Gaucho Sombra Berlin: Verlag Neues Leben, 1979, Kompass-Bücherei Volume 256. Uniform title: Don Segundo Sombra.
  • Loneliness (solo). In: From the pampas. Seals from the Silberstrom in German rendering by Robert Lehmann-Nitsche. Introduction by Hans Friedrich Blunck. (With the addition of the original Spanish texts.) Leipzig: F. Meiner 1940, p. 97.
  • The ghost in the crevice. Translated by Gerda Theile-Bruhns. In: Under the Southern Cross. Stories from Central and South America. Edited by Albert Theile . Zurich: Manesse 1956, pp. 115–122.
  • Alone (solo). In: trembling heart of the pampas. Gaucho seal. Translated and edited by Albert Theile. Zurich: Arche 1959, p. 8.
  • At the hearth fire. Translated from the Spanish by Maria von Gemmingen. In: The White Storm. Argentina in the tales of its best contemporary authors. Selection and editing WA Oerley. Herrenalb / Black Forest: H. Erdmann 1964, pp. 196–203, and in the 2nd, edited and supplemented edition, selection and editing by WA Oerley and Curt Meyer-Clason. Tübingen: H. Erdmann 1969, pp. 73-80.

See also

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Güiraldes, Ricardo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Argentine writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Buenos Aires
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1927
Place of death Paris