A Barbarian in Paris: Essays on French Culture.— Mario Vargas Llosa

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French literature was the best and still is. The boldest, the freest, [...] the one that defies the present, the one that regulates and administers the dreams of living beings.

The literary myths and intellectual dynamism in France seduced Vargas Llosa at the beginning of his career to the point that he came to believe he would only become a writer if he reached Paris and managed to acclimate to an environment that gave arts and thought a privileged place. Dumas's and Flaubert's novels opened his imagination and inclined him towards realism, and the ideas of Sartre, Camus, Bataille, Aron, and Revel showed him what a public intellectual should be like.

As Carlos Granés indicates in the prologue to this book, his intellectual and cultural formation gave him the certainty that any Latin American writer, even one born in the Peruvian provinces (a barbarian), could participate in all the political, cultural, and social affairs of his time if he nourished himself with solid literary and philosophical traditions. In seeking France, Vargas Llosa found his native country and the entire world.

The selection of writings that make up A Barbarian in Paris attests to this devotion to French culture that has led Vargas Llosa to be the first author of a foreign language to receive the highest honor destined for Francophone writers: becoming one of the immortals. For this reason, the volume closes with the unpublished induction speech to the French Academy delivered in February 2023.

ISBN: 9786073826211

Used book in good condition. May show slight signs of use, without affecting readability.