Novel
Amalia: A Romance of the Argentine
Amalia
José Mármol · 1851
Opening lines
El 4 de mayo de 1840, a las diez y media de la noche, seis hombres atravesaban el patio de una pequeña casa de la calle de Belgrano, en la ciudad de Buenos Aires.
On 4 May 1840, at half past ten at night, six men were crossing the courtyard of a small house in Belgrano Street, in the city of Buenos Aires.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from es.wikisource.org
Synopsis
On the night of 4 May 1840, five men try to leave Buenos Aires to join the army being formed in Uruguay; betrayed by their guide, they run into a patrol and four are killed, according to Biografías y Vidas. Eduardo Belgrano, wounded, is taken in at the home of Amalia, a widow from Tucumán, according to La Gaceta. His cousin, Daniel Bello, brought him there; during his convalescence, Eduardo and Amalia fall in love, while the dictator's sister-in-law collects denunciations from the servants.
Context
The novel appeared as a serial in La Semana, in Montevideo, from 21 April 1851; publication was interrupted in February 1852, and the complete work came out only in 1855 in Buenos Aires, in eight volumes, according to the critical edition of the University of Mar del Plata and Biografías y Vidas. In his “Explicación”, the author says he writes, through a calculated fiction, for generations to come, which allows him to treat his own contemporaries in the past tense; Piglia, cited by La Gaceta, takes up the expression. Rosas, his daughter and his henchmen appear in it under their real names, according to Biografías y Vidas.
Who it is for
A long novel in Spanish, first published in serial form, translated into English in 1919; no known French translation.
Prizes and reception
Often regarded as the first Argentine novel, according to Britannica and La Gaceta, and since become the national novel.
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