Zárate: (256 Currents in Comparative Romance Languages & Literatures)

The protagonist of the novel Zárate, Santos Zárate was a historical figure. A Venezuelan highwayman with a stronghold in the forest of Güere, he terrorized the valleys of Aragua for some twelve years. The action of the novel takes place in 1825, a few years after Venezuela had sealed its independence from Spain by defeating the Spanish forces at the Battle of Carabobo (June 24, 1821). At this time, General Francisco José de Paula Santander was vice president of the Gran Colombia, the conglomerate of Colombia and Venezuela that had fought Spain for its freedom. General José Antonio Páez governed the Venezuelan region, with his headquarters in Valencia. The entire nation readied itself to confront the great scourge of the times—the terrible and feared marauders that sowed apprehension and terror among the residents of the valleys of Aragua. There is in the novel the exaltation of an elite agrarian way of life, idyllic, edenic, that contrasts vividly with the violence of life in the llanos and, especially, with the activities of the highwaymen. Moreover, there is a delicate love story that develops pari passu with the official activities of the main protagonists. The development of the female characters may seem a bit quaint for today’s tastes, though they are beautiful and carefully drawn. An irrepressible humor, at times subtle, pervades the entire novel.

Table of Contents:
The March – The Travelers – A Good Cure for Nostalgia – How Appearances Deceive – The Prisoner – Resurrected – Doctor Sandalio Bustillón – A Look Backward – My Kingdom for a Horse – Hacienda “El Torreón” – On the Shores of the Lake – Don Carlos’s Guest – The Lion in a Sheep’s Skin – A Bad Memory Detracting from a Thankless Impression – Do Good, Think Not to Whom – Idyll through a Trellis – Other Types from Our Old Times – Roaring Jealousies and Expanding Hearts – White Wings at the Bottom of a Cave – Old Worries – Sybil and Mother – Preposterous Projects and One More Illusion Dispelled – Turn Three Times and You’ll Find It – Metamorphosis – The Brush’s Kiss – A Seasonable Advice – Grains of Sand that Will Turn to Mountains – The Feast – The Nightmare of Romerales – A Graphic Response – Privilege of Windows that Open on to Orchards – Prerogatives of Orchards on Which Some Windows Look – The Great Man Hunt – The Jaguar and the Dogs – An Abyss – A Hand for a Head – A Feeble Light to Brighten Dreadful Dark – Daring Dazzling Valor The Wedding – A Demon Turned to Archangel – God’s Justice.

About the Author :
Ignacio L. Götz holds a Ph.D. from New York University. He taught philosophy and comparative religion at Hofstra University for 35 years, where he held the Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor Chair. He has published some 20 books, among them Faith, Humor, and Paradox; Manners and Violence; Jesus the Jew (2nd edition); Conceptions of Happiness (2nd edition); The Unknowable God; and Venezuela Heroica (Peter Lang).