The idea for a new novel, which in the original version he wanted to call “Home,” had been brewing for a long time. He even managed to describe some of his characters on the pages of his previous books. The novel was conceived as a broad epic canvas, describing the life of numerous representatives of seven generations of one family, so Marquez spent most of his time working on it. He had to give up all other work. Having mortgaged the car, Marquez gave this money to his wife so that she could support their two sons and provide the writer with paper, coffee, cigarettes and some food. I must say that in the end the family even had to sell household appliances, because there was no money at all.
As a result of continuous 18-month work, the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” was born, so unusual and original that many publishing houses where Marquez applied with it simply refused to publish it, not at all confident in its success with the public. The first edition of the novel was published in only 8 thousand copies.
Chronicle of a family
In my own way literary genre the novel belongs to the so-called magical realism. It is so closely intertwined with reality, mysticism and fantasy that somehow it is simply impossible to separate them, so the unreality of what is happening in it becomes the most tangible reality.“One Hundred Years of Solitude” describes the story of only one family, but this is not at all a list of events happening to the heroes. This is a looped time that has begun to twist its spirals family history with incest and ending this story with incest too. Colombian tradition of giving children the same family names further emphasizes this circularity and inevitable cyclicality, feeling which all representatives of the Buendia clan always experience internal loneliness and accept it with philosophical doom.
In fact, it is simply impossible to retell the content of this work. Like any work of genius, it is written only for one specific reader and that reader is you. Everyone perceives and understands it in their own way. Perhaps that is why, while many of Marquez’s works have already been filmed, not a single director undertakes to transfer the heroes of this mystical novel to the screen.
The book "One Hundred Years of Solitude" was included in world literature How iconic masterpiece thoughts brilliant writer, who was not afraid to highlight without embellishment the origins, heyday and decline of the Buendia family clan.
Who is Gabriel Marquez?
In March 1928, in a small Colombian city, a volcano of the literary field was born - the talented and eccentric writer Gabriel Marquez. There are not enough pages in any book to tell about this personality! He, like no one else, knew how to live every day of his life as if it were his last and enjoy the tiniest detail of everyday life. For him, every person was worthy of writing standalone novel, and each event was entered into the recesses of the subconscious, so that later it could find its place among the intertwining destinies of the book’s heroes.
All the magic of the writer’s words originated from his journalistic career. He published bold and even daring materials, revealing the most hidden facts as if events had been subjected to surgical intervention. His creative legacy has become a symbol of literature throughout South America, putting him on a pedestal among writers.
Marquez's first story was written in 1947, at a time when the writer had not yet thought about a literary career, but was already depressed by his current work as a lawyer. Wanting to delve into human destinies in more detail, as well as disarm social injustice with the help of words, Gabriel began working as a journalist in 1948.
Political turmoil in his homeland drives the writer to France, where he writes his first novel, “Nobody Writes to the Colonel.” Returning some time later to home country, Marquez worked as a correspondent for local newspapers. He often traveled to make reports in European countries, and he more than used his accumulated knowledge in his stories and novels. However, most significant work In his work, as well as in literature in general, Marquez’s book “One Hundred Years of Solitude” became a landmark.
A novel that captures the essence of Latin American history
If we talk about the most fundamental work of Gabriel García Márquez, then it is certainly worth mentioning “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Reviews of the book are very contradictory, although not a single critic has ever dared to refute the invaluable depth of artistic expression.
From a literary point of view, this novel is a multifaceted work, where the author, using the example of six generations from the Buendia clan, depicted the entire socio-historical process of development Latin America. Facts from the folk epic are intertwined here, questions of the existence of bourgeois civilization, and the history of world literature are touched upon. The novel well shows the spiritual path of the characters, which led them to alienation and then loneliness.
Time is the main character of the novel
Time moves in a spiral for the Buendia family, constantly returning all its members to previously occurring situations. It’s easy to get confused about the characters, since Marquez created “One Hundred Years of Solitude” in the image and likeness of previously existing clan traditions: boys from clan to clan were named after their father, which led to the fact that sooner or later all members of one clan were called the same. All characters are locked in one time space in which nothing happens for a long time. The illusions and loneliness of each member of the Buendia clan are so clearly visible against the backdrop of the current time, which, like a tornado, spins them in a circle, not letting them go beyond their limits.
This book symbolizes the important turning point that sooner or later occurs in every civilization, and people are forced to come out of their shells and succumb to inevitable changes. Gabriel dedicated “One Hundred Years of Solitude” to each individual and the entire city as a whole, because it is a mosaic of destinies.
The artistic originality of the novel
The book describes the most acute problems Colombian people, which were ubiquitous in other Latin American countries. The name, which the author chose not by chance, symbolizes the painful loneliness that was characteristic in critical times, where feudal exploitation went alongside a developed form of capitalism. Marquez uses irony everywhere to brighten up the corners of hopelessness. He presents to the readers the hereditary loneliness that was passed down in the Buendia family from generation to generation. An interesting fact is that it did not manifest itself immediately, and the heroes did not acquire a “closed” appearance from birth, but only after encountering certain circumstances, which, obviously, were also inherited.
The writer picturesquely depicts folk epic in the form of fairy tales, inventing unreal and very poetic storylines. Many characters in the novel are endowed with signs of werewolves, ghosts, and multi-headed dragons. The artistic originality of the novel lies in the fact that Marquez skillfully combines acute socio-psychological problems with fairy-tale motifs, introducing a mystical charm into his work.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude”: content
In this allegorical work Marquez describes the events of one small city called Macondo. This is an absolutely real village, which is even present on the map of Colombia. However, with light hand According to the author, this place has lost its geographical value and turned into a mythical city in which traditions from the writer’s childhood are forever rooted.
The event line is developing against the backdrop of acute socio-economic changes with mid-17th century century to the 30s of the XIX century. Basic characters, on whose shoulders Marquez shouldered all the hardships of existence of that period - the generation of the Buendia family. The summary of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” can be expressed in just a few phrases, while the greatest value for the reader is in individual dialogues, love stories of heroes and mystical digressions.
The novel is based on a sequential description of the life of members of one clan. Their family tree begins with the birth of the family of Ursula Iguarán and José Arcadio Buendía. Further, their lives are closely intertwined with a description of the activities of their grown children (second generation) - named after the father of José Arcadio, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Amaranta and Rebeca.
The third generation was the illegitimate children of previous family members; it was the most significant in number. Colonel Aureliano alone had 17 children from different women!
The fourth and fifth generations of the clan do not participate in events as clearly as the first three. By this time, it becomes increasingly difficult for the reader to distinguish between the characters, since they are all named after each other.
Founders of the Buendia family
“One Hundred Years of Solitude” - what is this book about? This question torments everyone who reads it. The symbolism of the work is hidden within the smallest details of the life of individual characters in the novel. In order to get closer to the solution to this phenomenon, let’s try to understand the personalities of the founders of the family that Gabriel Marquez talks about. One Hundred Years of Solitude begins with the marriage of José Arcadio and the inimitable Ursula, who was his cousin.
Their union was crowned by the fears of relatives that their children might be born like piglets, because it is not customary to create a union within an already existing family.
Ursula, aware of the consequences of incest, was determined to maintain her virginity. Jose Arcadio does not want to hear anything about such nonsense, but his young wife is adamant. For a year and a half they have been fighting at night for the right to keep their vows. An unfortunate incident changed the situation dramatically. One day they began to mock José Arcadio as a man, hinting at his marital failure. The proud representative of Buendia kills the offender with a spear and, upon arriving home, forces Ursula to fulfill her marital duty. But since then, the spirit of the offender begins to haunt them, and Jose Arcadio decides to settle in a new place. Having left the place they had acquired with their wife, they go in search of new housing. Thus, over time, the reader sees the birth of the new town of Macondo.
José and his Ursula represent two opposite poles. He is consumed from within by a passion for understanding the world, attracted by the mystical teachings of wizards and healers. Trying to combine science and magic in his mind, he fails to cope with this task and goes crazy. Ursula is like the core of this family. She unquestioningly performs the same tasks as her ancestors, not wanting to change her views on current situations.
Jose Arcadio Jr.
A summary of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is impossible without mentioning representatives of the second generation. Ursula and José Arcadio's first child is named after his father. He inherited his quarrelsome nature and emotional soul. Because of his passion, he leaves his father's house following the nomadic gypsies. Returning many years later, he marries his distant relative, who had grown up by this time. He turned into a secretive and gloomy young man. According to the plot of the novel, Jose Arcadio manages to save his younger brother from the hands of the invaders of the city, whose name is Aureliano Buendia. The hero died under mysterious circumstances.
Rebecca and Amaranta
The saga “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the content of which, of course, can confuse an inexperienced reader, would look stingy if its lines did not describe these two charming girls. Amaranta is the third child of Ursula and José Arcadio. Ever since the orphan Rebekah came to their house, they became friends. Having reached adulthood, the girls fall in love with the same guy - Italian Pietro.
The girls lose their friendship due to competitive enmity, but the Italian chooses Rebeca. After this, Amaranta is obsessed with the idea of taking revenge on her sister and even tries to poison her. The long-awaited wedding between Pietro and Ursula's third daughter never took place due to constant mourning. Rebeca, annoyed by unrequited love, finds solace in the arms of Jose Arcadio, the eldest son of the founder of the family. Despite Ursula's evil prophecies and promise to expel them from the family, the young couple decides to get married. At this time, Amaranta realizes that she has lost all interest in Pietro. She renounces love and decides to die innocent, despite numerous harassment from fans. After the death of her husband, Rebeka decides to live locked up and never leave the house.
Colonel Aureliano Buendia
In his novel, the writer did not deprive his second son, Jose Arcadio, the eldest, of attention. Marquez endows this hero with thoughtfulness and a philosophical nature. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” tells the story of Colonel Aureliano Buendía as a very sensitive person who spent his entire life searching for himself. His fate was tortuous, but he left behind a generous legacy in the form of 18 children.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude”: reviews
The irrefutable advantage of the book is its timeless relevance. This novel does not lose its depth even at the peak of global changes in society, since its pages masterfully capture the entire socio-psychological subtext of this phenomenon.
Readers say that one should not be distracted while reading the book, since Marquez, with his characteristic irony, managed to maximally simplify things that are difficult to understand and complicate stupid details. The story takes place on the border between reality and fiction. According to reviews, the lack of dialogue complicates the reading process. The repeated names of the main characters, as well as the consistent intertwining of their destinies in similar situations, sometimes baffle even the most vigilant and attentive readers.
People recommend reading the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” as an adult. This will avoid misunderstanding of the processes described.
Who might like Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude?
This work is permeated with subtle humor and inimitable irony. The writer clearly pursued the goal not only to sanctify historical events of the period being described, but also to endow their heroes with the traits of people capable of coping with any changes. How far they succeeded is an open question, but there is no denying the fact that each character is written with breathtaking precision, and his behavior masterfully conveys the character assigned to him. The summary of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” can be simultaneously contained in one sentence, and at the same time, a day is not enough to tell what exactly it is about. This novel is rightfully in the golden treasury of the literary fund and claims to be a solid five.
It is impossible to say unequivocally who might like this work. This is fundamental historical novel with elements of Latin American folklore, the interweaving of mythical characters and strictly observed chronological sequence. He is on the line between the words of a madman and the thoughts of a philosopher. The main idea of the novel is that a person can cope with all the vicissitudes of fate, but he should never give up in front of the fear of defeat and his own powerlessness. For those who know how to see beyond the letters and can open their imagination to the feelings, the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” will seem like an undeniable diamond in a box of literary jewels. You now know what this book is about, and we hope that you have the desire to read it yourself.
Passed away on April 17 Gabriel Garcia Marquez- a writer who became a classic during his lifetime. Worldwide fame The writer brought the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” - a book that was written in such an unusual manner that many publishing houses refused to publish it. Only one risk was taken - and the work became an international bestseller. On at the moment More than 30 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide.
Gabriel Garcia Marxes. Photo: flickr.com / Carlos Botelho II
Background
Laureate Nobel Prize in literature and one of the most famous Colombian writers (if not the most famous), Gabriel García Márquez was born in 1927 in the small town of Aracataca. The boy spent his entire childhood with his grandparents (retired colonel), listening to folk legends and legends. Years later, they will be reflected in his works, and the city itself will become the prototype of Macondo, the fictional place where the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” takes place. A few more decades later, the mayor of Aracataca will propose renaming the city Macondo and will even hold a vote - however, the residents will not support his idea. And yet, all of Colombia will be proud of Marquez - and on the day of the writer’s death, the country’s president will write in his microblog: “A thousand years of loneliness and sadness due to the death of the greatest Colombian of all time, I express my solidarity and condolences to the family.”
Machine, hair dryer and mixer - for a novel
When Marquez conceived One Hundred Years of Solitude, he was almost 40. By that time, he had traveled half the world as a correspondent for Latin American newspapers and published several novels and stories, on the pages of which readers met the future heroes of Solitude, Aureliano Buendia and Rebeca.In the 1960s, the writer made a living working as a PR manager and editing other people's film scripts. Despite the fact that he had to support his family - his wife and two children, he took a risk and decided to realize the grandiose plan of a new novel. Marquez gave up work and pawned his car, and gave the proceeds to his wife so that she could provide him with paper, cigarettes and everything he needed every day. The author himself completely immersed himself in his work. He went into “voluntary confinement” for 18 months—the result of his work was the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
When Marquez finished the book, he learned that the family was mired in debt. For example, they owed the butcher 5,000 pesos, a huge sum at that time. As the writer said, he did not even have enough money to send the manuscript to the publisher - this required 160 pesos, and the author only had half the money. Then he pawned the mixer and his wife. The wife responded with the words: “The only thing missing was for the novel to be bad.”
Soldiers from the Colombian Civil War. 1900 Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org/Desconocido
Magic realism "One Hundred Years of Solitude"
The novel did not turn out to be “bad”. True, before falling into the hands of to the right person, the text was rejected by several different publishers - apparently, they were “scared” by Marquez’s unusual writing style. His work mixes the real daily life and fantastic elements - for example, dead characters appear in the novel, the gypsy Melquiades predicts the future, and one of the heroines is carried into the sky.
Despite the fact that such artistic method Since magical realism (namely, the writer adopted it) existed even before Marquez, writers did not resort to it very often. But the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” changed the attitude towards magical realism - now it is considered one of the “pinnacle” works of this method.
Chronicle of a family
The author describes the story of seven generations of the Buendia family - the lives of heroes whose lot was loneliness. Thus, the first representative of Buendia, the founder of the city of Macondo, spent many years alone under a tree, someone spent the rest of his life locked in an office, someone died in a monastery.
The “starting point” for Marquez was incest, as a result of which a child with a “pig tail” was born into the family. The legend about him is passed down among Buendia from generation to generation, but between relatives it arises again and again. love relationship and incest occurs. Eventually the circle closes - after 100 years, another child is born with a “pig tail”. This is where the Buendia family ends.
Fifteen years after the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez became the first Colombian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The award was awarded with the wording “For novels and stories in which fantasy and reality, combined, reflect the life and conflicts of an entire continent.”
A fragment of the cover of the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Marxes. Photo: flickr.com / Alan Parkinson
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the creator of the wonderful novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. The book was published in the second half of the 20th century. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. The novel has gained wide popularity; it raises questions that will always be relevant: the search for truth, the diversity of life, the inevitability of death, loneliness.
The novel tells the story of one fictional town of Macondo and one family. This story is unusual, tragic and comical at the same time. Using the example of one Buendia family, the writer talks about all the people. The city is presented from the moment of its origin to the moment of its collapse. Despite the fact that the name of the city is fictitious, the events taking place in it have significant overlap with real events that took place in Colombia.
The founder of the city of Macondo was José Arcadio Buendia, who settled there with his wife Ursula. Gradually the city began to flourish, children were born, and the population grew. Jose Arcadio was interested in secret knowledge, magic, and something unusual. He and Ursula had children who were not like other people, but at the same time they were very different from each other. Subsequently, the story of this family, more than a century long, is told: the children and grandchildren of the founders, their relationships, love; civil war, power, period economic development and the decline of the town.
The names of the characters in the novel are constantly repeated, as if showing that everything in their lives is cyclical, that they repeat their mistakes over and over again. The author raises the theme of incest in the work, starting with the founders of the city, who were relatives, and ending the story with the relationship between aunt and nephew and the complete destruction of the city, which was predicted in advance. The characters' relationships are complex, but they all wanted to love and loved, had families and children. However, each of them was lonely in their own way, the entire history of their family from the moment of its inception to the death of the last representative of the family is a history of loneliness that lasted more than a century.
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Gabriel Jose de la Concordia "Gabo" Garcia Marquez
Colombian novelist, journalist, publisher and political activist. Laureate of the Neustadt literary prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature. Representative literary direction"magical realism"
Born in the Colombian town of Aracataca (Magdalena department) in the family of Eligio Garcia and Luisa Santiago Marquez.
In 1940, at the age of 13, Gabriel received a scholarship and began his studies at the Jesuit college in the town of Zipaquira, 30 km north of Bogota. In 1946, at the insistence of his parents, he entered the National University of Bogota to study law. It was then that he met his future wife, Mercedes Barcha Pardo.
From 1950 to 1952 he wrote a column in the local newspaper " El Heraldo"in Barranquilla. During this time he became an active member of an informal group of writers and journalists known as Barranquilla Group who inspired him to start literary career. At the same time, García Márquez is engaged in writing, composing stories and film scripts. In 1961, he published the story “Nobody Writes to the Colonel” ( El coronel no tiene quien le escriba).
His novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” brought him worldwide fame. Cien anos de soledad, 1967). In 1972, he was awarded the Romulo Gallegos Prize for this novel.
"Since those years of loneliness"
One Hundred Years of Solitude was written by García Márquez over an 18-month period between 1965 and 1966 in Mexico City. Original idea this work appeared in 1952, when the author visited his native village Arakataka in the company of his mother. His short story "The Day After Saturday", published in 1954, features Macondo for the first time. Mine new novel García Márquez planned to call it "House", but eventually changed his mind in order to avoid analogies with the novel " Big house", published in 1954 by his friend Alvaro Zamudio.
“...I had a wife and two little sons. I worked as a PR manager and edited film scripts. But to write a book, I had to give up work. I pawned the car and gave the money to Mercedes. Every day she somehow got me paper, cigarettes, everything I needed for work. When the book was finished, it turned out that we owed the butcher 5,000 pesos - a lot of money. A rumor spread around the area that I was writing a very important book, and all the shopkeepers wanted to take part. To send the text to the publisher, I needed 160 pesos, and there were only 80 left. Then I pawned a mixer and a Mercedes hair dryer. Having learned about this, she said: “The only thing missing was that the novel turned out to be bad.”
From Garcia Marquez's interview with the magazine Esquire
"Since those years of loneliness" summary of the novel
The founders of the Buendia family, José Arcadio and Ursula, were cousins. The relatives were afraid that they would give birth to a child with a pig's tail. Ursula knows about the dangers of incestuous marriage, but Jose Arcadio does not want to take such nonsense into account. Over the course of a year and a half of marriage, Ursula manages to maintain her innocence; the nights of the newlyweds are filled with tedious and cruel struggle, replacing love joys. During a cockfight, the rooster José Arcadio defeats the rooster Prudencio Aguilar, and he, annoyed, mocks his opponent, questioning his manhood, since Ursula is still a virgin. Outraged, José Arcadio goes home to get a spear and kills Prudencio, and then, brandishing the same spear, forces Ursula to fulfill her marital duties. But from now on they have no peace from the bloody ghost of Aguilar. Having decided to move to a new place of residence, Jose Arcadio, as if making a sacrifice, kills all his roosters, buries a spear in the yard and leaves the village along with his wife and villagers. Twenty-two brave men overcome an inaccessible mountain range in search of the sea and, after two years of fruitless wanderings, found the village of Macondo on the river bank - Jose Arcadio had a prophetic indication of this in a dream. And now, in a large clearing, two dozen huts made of clay and bamboo grow up.
José Arcadio burns with a passion for understanding the world - more than anything else, he is attracted by various wonderful things that the gypsies who appear once a year deliver to the village: magnet bars, a magnifying glass, navigation instruments; From their leader Melquiades, he learns the secrets of alchemy, tormenting himself with long vigils and the feverish work of his inflamed imagination. Having lost interest in another extravagant undertaking, he returns to a measured working life, together with his neighbors he develops a village, demarcates land, and lays roads. Life in Macondo is patriarchal, respectable, happy, there is not even a cemetery here, since no one dies. Ursula is up to no good profitable production animals and birds made from candy. But with the appearance in Buendia’s house of Rebeca, who came from nowhere and becomes his adopted daughter, an epidemic of insomnia begins in Macondo. The residents of the village diligently redo all their affairs and begin to suffer from painful idleness. And then another misfortune hits Macondo - an epidemic of forgetfulness. Everyone lives in a reality that constantly eludes them, forgetting the names of objects. They decide to hang signs on them, but are afraid that after time they will not be able to remember the purpose of the objects.
Jose Arcadio intends to build a memory machine, but the wandering gypsy, scientist-magician Melquíades comes to the rescue with his healing potion. According to his prophecy, Macondo will disappear from the face of the earth, and in its place a sparkling city with big houses made of transparent glass, but there will be no traces of the Buendia family in it. José Arcadio doesn't want to believe it: there will always be Buendias. Melquíades introduces José Arcadio to another wonderful invention that is destined to play fatal role in his destiny. José Arcadio's most daring idea is to capture God using a daguerreotype in order to scientifically prove the existence of the Almighty or to disprove it. Eventually Buendia goes crazy and ends his days chained to a large chestnut tree in the courtyard of his house.
The first-born Jose Arcadio, named the same as his father, embodied his aggressive sexuality. He wastes years of his life on countless adventures. The second son, Aureliano, is absent-minded and lethargic, mastering jewelry making. Meanwhile, the village is growing, turning into a provincial town, acquiring a corregidor, a priest, and the establishment of Catarino - the first breach in the wall of “good morals” of the Makondovo people. Aureliano's imagination is stunned by the beauty of the corregidor's daughter Remedios. And Rebeca and Ursula Amaranta's other daughter fall in love with an Italian, piano master Pietro Crespi. Stormy quarrels occur, jealousy boils over, but in the end Rebeca gives preference to the “super male” Jose Arcadio, who, ironically, is overtaken by a quiet family life under the heel of his wife and a bullet fired by an unknown person, most likely the same wife. Rebekah decides to go into seclusion, burying herself alive in the house. Out of cowardice, selfishness and fear, Amaranta refuses love; in her declining years, she begins to weave a shroud for herself and fades away after finishing it. When Remedios dies from childbirth, Aureliano, oppressed by disappointed hopes, remains in a passive, melancholy state. However, the cynical machinations of his father-in-law, the correspondent, with ballots during elections and the arbitrariness of the military in his hometown force him to leave to fight on the side of the liberals, although politics seems to him something abstract. The war forges his character, but devastates his soul, since, in essence, the struggle for national interests has long turned into a struggle for power.
Grandson of Ursula Arcadio, school teacher, appointed civil and military ruler of Macondo during the war, behaves like an autocratic owner, becoming a local tyrant, and with the next change of power in the town, he is shot by conservatives.
Aureliano Buendía becomes the supreme commander of the revolutionary forces, but gradually realizes that he is only fighting out of pride and decides to end the war to free himself. On the day the truce was signed, he tries to commit suicide, but fails. Then he returns to the family home, refuses a lifelong pension and lives separately from the family and, secluded in splendid isolation, is engaged in making goldfish with emerald eyes.
Civilization comes to Macondo: railway, electricity, cinema, telephone, and at the same time an avalanche of strangers falls, establishing a banana company on these fertile lands. And now there is no time paradise turned into a hot place, something between a fair, a flophouse and a brothel. Seeing the disastrous changes, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, for many years deliberately shutting himself off from surrounding reality, experiences dull rage and regret that he did not bring the war to a decisive end. His seventeen sons by seventeen different women, the eldest of whom was under thirty-five, were killed on the same day. Doomed to remain in the desert of loneliness, he dies near an old mighty chestnut tree growing in the courtyard of his house.
Ursula watches with concern the extravagances of her descendants. War, fighting cocks, bad women and crazy ideas - these are the four disasters that caused the decline of the Buendia family, she believes and laments: the great-grandsons of Aureliano Segundo and José Arcadio Segundo collected all the family vices without inheriting a single family virtue. The beauty of the great-granddaughter of Remedios the Beauty spreads around the destructive spirit of death, but here the girl, strange, alien to all conventions, incapable of love and not knowing this feeling, obeying free attraction, ascends on freshly washed and hung sheets to dry, caught by the wind. The dashing reveler Aureliano Segundo marries the aristocrat Fernanda del Carpio, but spends a lot of time outside the home, with his mistress Petra Cotes. José Arcadio Segundo breeds fighting cocks and prefers the company of French hetaeras. His turning point occurs when he narrowly escapes death when striking banana company workers are shot. Driven by fear, he hides in Melquiades's abandoned room, where he suddenly finds peace and immerses himself in the study of the sorcerer's parchments. In his eyes, his brother sees a repetition of his great-grandfather’s irreparable fate. And over Macondo it begins to rain, and it rains for four years, eleven months and two days. After the rain, sluggish, slow people cannot resist the insatiable gluttony of oblivion.
Ursula's last years are marred by her struggle with Fernanda, a hard-hearted prude who has made lies and hypocrisy the basis of her family's life. She raises her son to be a slacker, and imprisons her daughter Meme, who sinned with the artisan, in a monastery. Macondo, from which the banana company has squeezed out all the juice, is reaching the limit of neglect. To this dead town, covered with dust and exhausted by the heat, after the death of his mother, José Arcadio, Fernanda’s son, returns and finds his illegitimate nephew Aureliano Babilonia in the devastated family nest. Maintaining languid dignity and aristocratic manners, he devotes his time to lascivious games, while Aureliano, in Melquiades's room, is immersed in translating the encrypted verses of old parchments and making progress in studying Sanskrit.
Coming from Europe, where she received her education, Amaranta Ursula is obsessed with the dream of reviving Macondo. Smart and energetic, she tries to breathe life into the local human society, haunted by misfortunes, but to no avail. A reckless, destructive, all-consuming passion connects Aureliano with his aunt. A young couple is expecting a child, Amaranta Ursula hopes that he is destined to revive the family and cleanse it of disastrous vices and the vocation of loneliness. The baby is the only one of all the Buendias born over the century who was conceived in love, but he is born with a pig's tail, and Amaranta Ursula dies of bleeding. The last of the Buendia family is destined to be eaten by the red ants that have infested the house. With ever-increasing gusts of wind, Aureliano reads the history of the Buendia family in the parchments of Melquiades, learning that he is not destined to leave the room, because according to the prophecy, the city will be swept away from the face of the earth by a hurricane and erased from the memory of people at the very moment when he finishes deciphering the parchments.
Source – Wikipedia, Brifley.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez – “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – summary novel updated: December 10, 2017 by: website