One Hundred Years of Solitude (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Claudette Kemper Columbus, "The Heir Must Die: One Hundred Years of Solitude as a Gothic Novel," in Modern Fiction Studies, Vol. 32, No. 3, Autumn 1986, pp. 397-416.

  Explores García Márquez's novel for its gothic aspects and compares it to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Frankenstein, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

• William Faulkner, The Portable Faulkner, edited by Malcolm Cowley, Viking Press, 1977.

  This volume presents the entire legend of Yoknapatawpha. The creation of this fictional place is not unlike the creation of Macondo by García Márquez and the two are often compared. It is said that García Márquez read Hemingway as an antidote to Faulkner.

• Jean Franco, "Gabriel García Márquez," in his An Introduction to Spanish American Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1969, pp. 343-347.

  Franco offers a brief but worthwhile overview of García Márquez's major themes in One Hundred Years of Solitude.

• Carlos Fuentes, The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World, Houghton (Pap), 1993.

  Renowned Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes gives a brief history of Hispanic history. The tone of the work is very reflective with a hint of apology for Spanish history. It is clearly a reaction to the Spain-bashing which accompanied the quincentennial.

• Gabriel García Márquez, "The Solitude of Latin America," in Gabriel García Márquez and the Powers of Fiction, edited by Julio Ortega, University of Texas Press, 1988, pp. 87-92.

  García Márquez's 1982 Nobel Prize acceptance speech is essential background reading for any student studying One Hundred Years of Solitude.

• Regina Janes, "At Home in the Pope's Grotto: One Hundred Years of Solitude," in her Gabriel García Márquez: Revolutions in Wonderland, University of Missouri Press, 1981, pp. 48-69.

  Janes analyzes the structure of the novel and insists that its reliance on history and biblical framing holds it together.

• Regina Janes, "Liberals, Conservatives, and Bananas: Colombian Politics in the Fictions of Gabriel García Márquez," in Gabriel García Márquez, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1989, pp. 125-146.

  Janes provides the student with a lucid explanation of how the intricacies of Colombian politics figure in the novel.

• Regina Janes, One Hundred Years of Solitude: Modes of Reading, Twayne, 1991.

  In a book-length study of One Hundred Years of Solitude designed for the student, Janes offers literary and historical contexts, as well as well-developed biographical, mythic, and literary readings of the novel.

• Gerald Martin, "On 'Magical' and Social Realism in García Márquez," in Gabriel García Márquez: New Readings, edited by Bemard McGuirk and Richard Caldwell, Cambridge University Press, 1987, pp. 95-116.

  In an important essay, Martin argues that critics should "revise the impression of a novel whose two levels, magical and realist, mythical and historical, are entirely inseparable, since after the death of Úrsula they slowly but surely begin to come apart."

• Stephen Minta, García Márquez: Writer of Colombia, New York, 1987.

  This is the first biography of the writer.

• Bradley A. Shaw and Nora G. Vera-Godwin, eds., Critical Perspectives on Gabriel García Márquez, University of Nebraska Press, 1986.

  Shaw and Vera-Godwin present a variety of useful essays, most notably one on magical realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Morton P. Levitt.

• Anna Marie Taylor, "Cien años de soledad: History and the Novel," in Latin American Perspectives, Vol. II, No. 3, Fall, 1975, pp. 96-111.

  Explores the value of historical consciousness in the novel by García Márquez and its political relevance.

• Mario Vargas Llosa, "García Márquez: From Aracataca to Macondo," in Gabriel García Márquez, edited by Harold Bloom, Chelsea House Publishers, 1989, pp. 5-20.

  Vargas Llosa, a noted Latin American writer in his own right, is widely regarded as the foremost expert on García Márquez. This essay provides important background for the student of One Hundred Years of Solitude.

• Raymond Williams, "One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)," in his Gabriel García Márquez, Twayne, 1984.

  Noted scholar Raymond Williams provides a chapter-length introduction to the novel, providing not only an excellent overview of the book, but also succinct summaries of a variety of critical approaches. The rest of this clearly-written and informative book offers useful information on García Márquez's life and career.