Escritor Fracassado e outros contos

by Roberto Arlt

Roberto El Bukowski de Argentina./ Apreciado lector, te advertimos que en este libro encontrarás temas oscuros, como el delito, la traición, la amenaza, la hipocresía y la sátira a la moral burguesa. Los cuentos de Roberto Arlt son grotescos, enloquecidos, interesantísimos e incluso peligrosos. Escritor Fracasado (1933) recoge los cuentos del primer libro publicado por este autor, pero no parece para nada ser un “primer libro”. Al contrario, encontramos en esta obra una pluma rebelde, un escritor en estado de éxtasis, una narrativa fabricada con una prosa rica, fascinante y adictiva. Arlt relata lo más profundo de personajes marginados. Arlt es capaz de confesar lo que todos callan. El mismo Arlt dijo que éste era un libro “trabajado por calles oscuras y parajes taciturnos, en contacto con gente terrestre, triste y somnolienta”, y afirmó que tenía como protagonistas a hombres “parecidos a monstruos chapoteando en las tinieblas” (Arlt, 1933: 16). Este libro contiene 9 cuentos. 1). Escritor fracasado, una pieza dramática magnífica. 2). El narrador está en un calabozo por estrangular a Rigoletto. 3). Esther primavera, donde resalta la prosa poética. 4.) La luna roja, historia de un incendio. 5). Pequeños propietarios, una historia sobre la envidia. 6). Las fieras, uno de los cuentos más peligrosos del libro. 7). Una tarde de domingo, sobre infidelidad, deseo y traición. 8). El traje del fantasma, historia de un asesino que viaja a la locura. 9). Noche terrible, quizá la historia más peligrosa del libro y que el lector no olvidará nunca. El Quijote Literario cree que este libro es una pieza esencial que no puede faltar en la biblioteca de lectores y escritores que caminan hacia los vientos de la libertad. Invitamos a adquirir el libro en papel y dejar en comentarios su experiencia con esta lectura. ¡Gracias! /Te invitamos a unirte a nuestro canal literario en Telegram en el siguiente ¡Gracias! [El Quijote Literario] Colección el Búho – Cuentos.

316 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2018

About the author

Roberto Arlt was an Argentine writer born Roberto Godofredo Christophersen Arlt in Buenos Aires on April 2, 1900. His parents were both immigrants: his father Karl Arlt was a Prussian from Posen (now Poznan in present-day Poland) and his mother was Ekatherine Iobstraibitzer, a native of Trieste and Italian speaking. German was the language commonly used at their home. His relationship with his father was stressful, as Karl Arlt was a very severe and austere man, by Arlt's own account. The memory of his oppressive father would appear in several of his writings. For example, Remo Erdosain (a character at least partially based on Arlt's own life) often recalls his abusive father and how little if any support he would give him. After being expelled from school at the age of eight, Arlt became an autodidact and worked at all sorts of different odd jobs before landing a job on at a local newspaper: as clerk at a bookstore, apprentice to a tinsmith, painter, mechanic, welder, manager in a brick factory, and dock worker.

His first novel, El juguete rabioso (1926) ("Mad Toy"), was the semi-autobiographical story of Silvio, a dropout who goes through a series of adventures trying to be "somebody." Narrated by Silvio's older self, the novel reflects the energy and chaos of the early 20th century in Buenos Aires. The narrator's literary and sometimes poetic language contrasts sharply with the street-level slang of Mad Toy's many colorful characters.

Arlt's second novel, the popular Los siete locos (The Seven Madmen) was rough, brutal, colloquial and surreal, a complete break from the polite, middle-class literature more typical of Argentine literature (as exemplified, perhaps, by the work of Jorge Luis Borges, however innovative his work was in other respects). Los lanzallamas (The Flame-Throwers) was the sequel, and these two novels together are thought by many to be his greatest work. What followed were a series of short stories and plays in which Arlt pursued his vision of bizarre, half-mad, alienated characters pursuing insane quests in a landscape of urban chaos.

During his lifetime, however, Arlt was best known for his "Aguafuertes" ("Etchings"), the result of his contributions as a columnist - between 1928 and 1942 - to the Buenos Aires daily "El Mundo". Arlt used these columns to comment, in his characteristically forthright and unpretentious style, on the peculiarities, hypocrisies, strangeness and beauty of everyday life in Argentina's capital. These articles included occasional exposés of public institutions, such as the juvenile justice system ("Escuela primaria de delincuencia", 26–29 September 1932) or the Public Health System. Some of the "Aguafuertes" were collected in two volumes under the titles Secretos femeninos. Aguafuertes inéditas and Tratado de delincuencia. Aguafuertes inéditas which were edited by Sergio Olguín and published by Ediciones 12 and Página/12 in 1996.

Between March and May 1930, Arlt wrote a series of "Aguafuertes" as a correspondent to "El Mundo" in Rio de Janeiro. In 1935 he spent nearly a year writing as he traveled throughout Spain and North Africa, on the eve of the Spanish Civil War. At the time of his death, Arlt was hoping to be sent to the United States as a correspondent.

Worn out and exhausted after a lifetime of hardships, he died from a stroke on July 26, 1942. His coffin was lowered from his apartment by an operated crane, an ironic end, considering his bizarre stories.

Arlt has been massively influential on Latin American literature, including the 1960s "Boom" generation of writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Analogues in English literature are those who avoid literary 'respectability' by writing about the poor, the criminal and the mad: writers like William Burroughs, Iceberg Slim, and Irvine Welsh. Arlt, however, predated all of them. He is widely considered to be one of the founders of the modern Argentine novel; among those contemporary writers who cla

Reviews

[josé almeida · Rating 5 out of 5]

a prosa argentina é muito mais do que os meus queridos borges e cortázar. e um bom exemplo é roberto arlt, autor quase desconhecido entre nós mas que, à sua maneira, soube construir uma voz própria por escrito. teve uma vida atribulada e nem sempre as suas histórias são (d)escritas com qualidade constante, mas esta colectânea de contos reúne algumas pequenas obras-primas, com destaque para o conto que dá título ao livro. quem já pensou em escrever/publicar/editar e conhece o nosso meio literário/editorial vai identificar muita coisa que, quase um século depois, permanece actual. não é para todos, pegar nas decisões hesitantes de um escritor fracassado e criar um conto em que a escrita é um triunfo. e parabéns a quem (ainda) arrisca editar à margem dos presentes ditames comerciais.

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the Portuguese translation of El Jorobadito, a collection of short stories by the Argentinian writer Roberto Arlt. It is a very enjoyable set, with very nice stories: the one that gives the original Spanish title to the book (which I had already read in the book "Pequenas Histórias"), and the second in this volume (which gives its title to this Portuguese translation) are two of my favorites. But others are also very good, such as "Noite Terrível" ("Terrible Night", the inner monologue of a man in the night before he is supposed to get married), "As Feras" (where the narrator recalls his decay into a pimp), or "Tarde de Domingo" (the very incipient beginning of a middle class extra-marital relationship).

[Pedro Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roberto Arlt escreve com a fúria, a tensão e a imaginação de um autodidata. Porque quando se chega à literatura por essa via, como é o caso de Roberto, conhecendo ou não os cânones, lê-os pelos seus próprios olhos e procura neles esses motivos vivos, que muitas vezes correspondem à sua própria índole. Não enche páginas com textos redondos e murchos, cheios de receios intelectuais, por demais formatados e inócuos.

Roberto Arlt é excitante, vivo, intrépido.

[Heitz Julieta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un escritor es fracasado hasta que logra escribir, e incluso habiéndolo hecho su éxito no es asegurado por lo que debe emprenderse en la tarea devuelta. No logrando éxito como escritor, el protagonista se dedica a la critica.

[Hugo Pereira · Rating 4 out of 5]

4+

[Jaz Molinate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leí solamente "escritor fracasado" para la facu :)

[Inês Moreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

que excelente descoberta. escrita sublime. no entanto, os contos carecem de consistência na qualidade.