Арканзаски трапери

by Gustave Aimard, Огнян Вартоломеев (Translator), Стоян Казанджиев (Translator)

Dobrodružný román francouzského spisovatele (1818-1883), autora řady dobrodružných a námořních románů, uvádí do ovzduší americké prérie z konce třicátých let minulého století, kdy Indiáni bojují svůj "nekonečný a předem ztracený boj s bílými osídlenci". Napínavý děj, plný zápletek a překvapení, nelíčí Indiány jednostranně, ale tak, jací opravdu byli. Převyprávěná verze představuje proti originálu citlivé a promyšlené zkrácení

Genres: Fiction

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1864

About the author

As he once said, he was the son of two people who were married, ‘but not with each other.’ His father, François Sébastiani de la Porta (1775–1851) was a general in Napoleon’s army and one of the ambassadors of the Louis Philippe government. Sébastini was married to the Duchess de Coigny. In 1806 the couple produced a daughter: Alatrice-Rosalba Fanny. Shortly after her birth the mother died. Fanny was raised by her grandmother, the Duchess de Coigny. According to the New York Times of July 9, 1883, Aimard’s mother was Mme. de Faudoas, married to Anne Jean Marie René de Savary, Duke de Rovigo (1774–1833).

Aimard was given as a baby to a family that was paid to raise him. By the age of nine or twelve he was sent off on a herring ship. Later, around 1838, he served for a short while with the French Navy. After one more stay in America (where, according to himself, he was adopted into a Comanche tribe), Aimard returned to Paris in 1847-–the same year his half-sister, Duchess de Choiseul-Pralin, was brutally murdered by her noble husband. Reconciliation with, or acknowledgement by, his biological family did not happen. After having served for a short while at the Garde Mobil Aimard left again for the Americas. This time he was among the 150 miners hired by Duke de Raousset-Boulbon, who wanted to mine in Mexico. However, mining permits were not issued, and the duke decided ‘to free’ the poor people of Mexico. He conquered Hermosillo on October 13, 1852. The duke fell severely ill on the first night of his conquest, and the Hermosillo villagers right away re-took their village. The miners fled and Aimard again returned to France.

In 1854 he married to Adèle Lucie Damoreau, an ‘artiste lyrique’, and wrote about seventy books, many about them about American Indians. Most of his Indian books were translated into over ten languages. Their reviews mostly deal with the question whether they would harm children or not or whether they are too bloody or not. However, between the lines of his books many autobiographical, anthropological, and historical facts are hidden. Writing about the-–lost-–French-German war caused Aimard to lose his readership. His 1852 Mexican adventure is described in Curumilla; the history of the murder of his half-sister Fanny in Te Land en Te Water I & II.

In 1870 Aimard and a small army of press people participated in the French-German war in which he booked a modest success (the Bourget-affaire). In 1879 the literary community of Rio de Janeiro hailed him as a hero. Aimard’s travelogue about this journey has never been translated from French.

During his stay in Rio de Janeiro he had contact with Emperor Pedro II as is apparent from Aimard’s January, 11, 1880 letter to Pedro II which letter he signed with Gustave Aimard

Reviews

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Историята на Блудния Син в Дивия Запад! С бандити, красиви сеньорити и девствени гори. Много лесно четиво, с интересни герои и някои нелицеприятни размисли за човешката природа...

Естествено, прекалената сантименталност малко дразни на моменти, но се балансира от енергичния сюжет и симпатичните герои.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the author boasts in the book that his Spanish is perfect, every time he writes a phrase in Spanish it has errors:-) On the other hand, the book is slow and repetitive, with many unnecessary paragraphs. The author attacks the Spanish and North American colonization, and the Mexican Catholic religiosity. The good guys in his book are the trappers and the Indians (although the latter are a little rough, cutting off the hands of their prisoners and torturing women), and the bad guys are the "pirates of the prairie." The law of the prairie, according to the protagonist, is "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," which he attributes to God. Well!

Bien que l'auteur se vante dans le livre que son espagnol est parfait, chaque fois qu'il écris une phrase en espagnol, il-y-a des erreurs:-) D'autre part, le livre est lent et répétitif, avec de nombreux paragraphes inutiles. L'auteur se déchaîne contre la colonisation espagnole et américaine, et contre la religiosité catholique mexicaine. Les bons personnages sont les trappeurs et les Indiens (bien que ceux-ci sont un peu brut, coupant les mains des prisonniers et torturant des femmes), et les mauvais sont les "Pirates des Prairies". La loi de la prairie, dit le protagoniste, est «œil pour œil et dent pour dent» et l'attribue à Dieu. En fin!

[Sebastián Alarcón · Rating 5 out of 5]

I noticed some similarities with the book of Manuel Payno "Los bandidos de Río Frío", and it's understood because both books were written just in the middle of the XIX century. I really enjoyed the way that Aimard accurately described Mexican customs, way of living and how the Rule of the Meadow was going on. Braveness, abnegation, courage, honour... All of them ruled the destiny of our characters.

I do not know why Aimard is not well known around the reader circle, but for whomever who has read Ignacio Manuel Altamirano and Manuel Payno, this book happily continues in this tenure.