The Kingdom of This World A Novel

by Carpentier, Alejo; de Onís, Harriet; Danticat, Edwidge

• ISBN13: 9780374530112
• ISBN10: 0374530114
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-05-16
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

A few years after its liberation from the brutality of French colonial rule in 1803, Haiti endured a period of even greater brutality under the reign of King Henri-Christophe, who was born a slave in Grenada but rose to become the first black king in the Western Hemisphere. In prose of often dreamlike coloration and intensity, Alejo Carpentier records the destruction of the black regimebuilt on the same corruption and contempt for human life that brought down the French while embodying the same hollow grandeur of false elegance, attained only through slave laborin an orgy of voodoo, race hatred, madness, and erotomania. Alejo Carpentierwas born in Havana in 1904. He lived for many years in France and Venezuela but returned to Cuba after the revolution. One of the major Latin American writers of this century, he is the author ofThe Lost Steps,Explosion in a Cathedral, andThe Chase. He died in Paris in 1980. A few years after its liberation from French colonialist rule, Haiti experienced a period of unsurpassed brutality, horror, and superstition under the reign of the black King Henri-Christophe. Through the eyes of the ancient slave Ti-Noel,The Kingdom of This Worldrecords the destruction of the black regimebuilt on the same corruption and contempt for human life that brought down the Frenchin an orgy of voodoo, race hatred, erotomania, and fantastic grandeurs of false elegance. "Carpentier's writing has the power and range of a cathedral organ on the eve of the Resurrection."The New Yorker "Carpentier's writing has the power and range of a cathedral organ on the eve of the Resurrection."The New Yorker "Carpentier's energy is gigantic and pell-mell, sweeping colossi on top of each other with ruthless, contemptuous daring."The Yale Review "Carpentier creates a brilliant, improbable world which has the stylized reality of the great myths."The Atlantic Monthly "The Kingdom of This Worldpacks literary dynamite. There can be no disputing the fact, Carpentier is equipped with an elegant perception and a distinctive style which make him a writer to be classed with Thomas Mann and W. H. Hudson."San Francisco Chronicle

Author Biography

Alejo Carpentier was born in Havana in 1904. He lived for many years in France and Venezuela but returned to Cuba after the revolution. One of the major Latin American writers of this century, he is the author of The Lost Steps, Explosion in a Cathedral, and The Chase. He died in Paris in 1980.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Edwidge Danticat
Part One
The Wax Heads	3	(10)
The Amputation	13	(4)
What the Hand Found	17	(6)
The Reckoning	23	(4)
De Profundis	27	(6)
The Metamorphoses	33	(6)
Human Guise	39	(4)
The Great Flight	43	(8)
Part Two
The Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae	51	(8)
The Solemn Pact	59	(6)
The Call of the Conch Shells	65	(4)
Dagon Inside the Ark	69	(6)
Santiago de Cuba	75	(8)
The Ship of Dogs	83	(8)
Saint Calamity	91	(10)
Part Three
The Portents	101	(4)
Sans Souci	105	(8)
The Sacrifice of the Bulls	113	(8)
The Immured	121	(8)
Chronicle of August 15	129	(6)
Ultima Ratio Regum	135	(10)
Strait is the Gate	145	(8)
Part Four
The Night of the Statues	153	(10)
The Royal Palace	163	(6)
The Surveyors	169	(6)
Agnus Dei	175