Peruvian Traditions

by Palma, Ricardo; Conway, Christopher; Lane, Helen

• ISBN13: 9780195159080
• ISBN10: 019515908X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-05-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Peruvian author Ricardo Palma (1838-1919) was one of the most popular and imitated writers in Latin America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As head of the National Library in Lima, Palma had access to a rich source of historical books and manuscripts. His historical miscellanies, which he called "traditions," are witty anecdotes about conquerors, viceroys, corrupt and lovelorn friars, tragic loves and notorious characters. Humor, irony and word play characterize his collection of over five hundred traditions written between 1872 and 1906, whether describing violent deeds or amorous misadventures. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the second half of the nineteenth century, Palma did not write transparent didactic fictions and defend elite cultural forms. Rather, he reveled in ironic approaches to written sources, political authorities and church institutions as well as in popular speech and knowledge. Both fiction and history, Palma's delightful Peruvian Traditions represents a hybrid literary form that constructs historical memory distinct from the dominant literary trends of the time.

Author Biography

Christopher Conway is Assistant Professor of Latin American Literature in the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University. Helen Lane, an award-winning translator, has translated the work of Mario Varga Llosa and Octavio Paz. She is the translator of Fray Servando's Memoirs and Marmol's Amalia also for the Library of Latin America series.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's General Introduction	ix
Translator's Note	xiii
Chronology of Ricardo Palma	xv
Introduction	xix
First Series	1	(10)
Palla-Huarcuna	3	(3)
The Christ in Agony	6	(5)
Second Series	11	(74)
The Knights of the Cape	13	(16)
The Magistrate's Ears	29	(7)
A Heretical Viceroy and a Rascally Bell Ringer	36	(9)
Drink, Father, It Will Keep You Alive!	45	(5)
The Countess Who Was Summoned	50	(8)
A Mother's Love	58	(6)
A Viceroy and an Archbishop	64	(14)
The Corregidor of Tinta	78	(7)
Third Series	85	(32)
The Inca's Achirana	87	(2)
A Letter Sings	89	(5)
An Adventure of the Post-Viceroy	94	(7)
Everyone the Master in His Own House	101	(4)
The Latin of a Young Lady of Lima	105	(5)
Santiago the Flier	110	(7)
Fourth Series	117	(32)
Three Historical Questions Concerning Pizarro	119	(7)
The Scapegoat	126	(4)
Friars' Work!	130	(7)
Saint Thomas's Sandal	137	(3)
The Black Mass	140	(4)
Bolivar's Justice	144	(5)
Fifth Series	149	(16)
Don Alonso the Brawny	151	(4)
Margarita's Wedding Dress	155	(5)
Abascal's Clever Trick	160	(5)
Sixth Series	165	(24)
The Demon of the Andes	167	(10)
The Judge's Three Reasons	177	(3)
The Witches of Ica	180	(6)
The Royalist Smells of Death to Me	186	(3)
Seventh Series	189	(30)
Friar Gomez's Scorpion	191	(6)
Canterac's Bugler	197	(3)
The Protectress and the Liberatrix	200	(12)
The King of the Camanejos	212	(7)
Eighth Series	219	(16)
Friar Martin's Mice	221	(4)
Two Excommunications	225	(5)
The Major's Calf	230	(5)
Ninth Series	235	(8)
The Liberator's Three Etceteras	237	(6)
Tenth Series	243	(16)
The Incas Who Played Chess	245	(6)
Between Garibaldi . . . and Me	251	(5)
Consolacion	256	(3)
Appendix: Listing of the Peruvian Traditions by Historical Period	259	(2)
Bibliography	261