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Carpentier, Alejo (Translated by Frances Partridge) : War Of Time: Stories By Alejo Carpentier

Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY, 1970

ISBN 0575003707

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 179 pages. Retrospective collection of stories. One of the greatest books of the 20th century. The first appearance of the title in English and in the United States. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Alejo Carpentier's "Guerra del tiempo" in a felicitous English translation. Inspired by his stint in Venezuela, a mid-career highlight and masterpiece. "Everywhere in these narratives an extraordinarily rich and imaginative mind speculates upon, evokes, and criticizes the human condition and what men do in accepting and altering it. Writing of the rarest depth and resonance" (Publisher's blurb). Together with Machado de Assis, Alejo Carpentier is regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of Magical Realism, the dominant style of Modern Latin-American literature. Unlike almost all other Modern writers who were deeply committed to an ideology (in Carpentier's case, Fidel Castro's Marxism), Carpentier did not subscribe to "committed" literature (as Sartre, for example, did). On the contrary, he was a committed aesthete who sought to find the right voice and texture in his prose to capture what he saw as the unique Latin-American reality and experience. He called the latter "Lo Real Maravilloso", The Real Marvellous, whose implicative realization in his work made Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" possible, among other universally recognized masterworks. However, Carpentier was not just a forerunner: Every page of his great works shimmers with (otherwise ineffable) poetry, mystery, and metaphysical possibility. At his very best, he is a superior artist compared to Garcia Marquez and his numerous follower-successors. An absolute "must-have" title for Alejo Carpentier collectors. This title is a great collection. This is one of few copies of the First American Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Regarded by Harold Bloom as one of the canonical writers of our time. One of the greatest writers of the 20th century. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER ALEJO CARPENTIER TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0575003707.

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