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As he reflects on the past , the General often thinks and dreams about his former friend Francisco de Paula Santander . The historical Francisco de Paula Santander was a friend of Simón Bolívar , but was later accused of complicity in a plot to assassinate him and sent into exile . In the novel , the General remembers... |
= = = Field Marshal Antonio José de Sucre = = = |
Field Marshal Antonio José de Sucre is portrayed as an intimate friend of the General . The historical Antonio José de Sucre , the Field Marshal of Ayacucho , had been the most trusted general of Simón Bolívar . García Márquez describes him as " intelligent , methodical , shy , and superstitious " . The Field Marshal ... |
= = = Minor characters = = = |
The novel revolves around the fictionalized figure of Bolívar and includes many minor characters who are part of the General 's travelling party , whom he meets on his journey or who come to him in his memories and dreams of his past . Sometimes they are identified by particular quirks or tied to small but significant... |
= = Major themes = = |
= = = Politics = = = |
In The General in His Labyrinth , García Márquez voices his political views through the character of the General . For example , Alvarez Borland points out that in the scene where the General responds to the French diplomat , his words closely reflect García Márquez 's 1982 Nobel Address . The diplomat is critical of ... |
The novel was published in 1989 , when the Soviet Union was disintegrating and the political map was being radically redrawn . Reviewing The General in His Labyrinth in 1990 , the novelist Margaret Atwood pointed to another instance of García Márquez raising political issues through the character of the General . He h... |
= = = Figural labyrinth = = = |
According to literary critic David Danow , the labyrinth of the novel 's title refers to " a series of labyrinths that are contingent upon matters of history , geography , and biography ... that consistently and conclusively result in a dead end " — in this case , the General 's own death . His final voyage along the ... |
García Márquez depicts the General 's body itself as a labyrinth . His doctor observes that " everything that enters the body , adds weight , and everything that leaves it is debased . " The General 's body is described as a " labyrinth coming to a literal dead end " . The labyrinth is also expressed in geographical a... |
= = = Fate and love = = = |
Bolívar 's fate is known from the beginning , and García Márquez constantly uses images which foreshadow this ending . For instance , a clock stuck at seven minutes past one , the exact time of the General 's death , appears repeatedly in the novel . This sense of fate is introduced in the epigraph , which comes from ... |
The theme of love is central to the novel . Bolívar had a reputation as a womanizer , and books have been written on his philandering ; but as depicted in this novel , during the last seven months of his life , the General could no longer engage in the activities that had fueled that reputation . García Márquez mentio... |
= = = Numbers and religious symbols = = = |
Numbers are an important symbolic aspect of the novel . The book is divided into eight chapters , almost all of equal length , which represent the eight @-@ year love affair between the General and Manuela Sáenz . The General 's last hours are marked by an octagonal clock . Allusions to the number three are even more ... |
Rodríguez Vergara observes that the General is like a supernatural being , simultaneously dying and being surrounded by symbolic circumstances such as rain , fiestas , and the plague . The novel begins with Bolívar immersed in purifying waters , in a state of ecstasy and meditation that suggests a priestly ritual . On... |
René Girard has interpreted the recurrence of rain in the novel as one of the purifying rituals the community must undergo in order to wash away the contagion of violence . The fiestas may represent another ritual of purification and also symbolize war . Fiestas are held to honour the General when he arrives at a town... |
= = = Melancholy and mourning = = = |
Latin American cultural theorist Carlos J. Alonso , drawing on Freudian theory , argues that the novel is essentially a therapeutic device , designed to help move Latin America past its problematic experience of modernity . He compares this to the way the healing state of mourning replaces grief in the process of reco... |
Latin America 's history and culture , Alonso suggests , began with the loss of Bolívar 's dream of a united continent and as a result has developed under a melancholy shadow ever since . Thus , by forcing the reader to return to the origin of modernity in Latin America and confront its death in the most horrific way ... |
= = = Challenging history = = = |
García Márquez comments on the nature of historical fact by drawing attention to the way history is written . The novel recreates a time in Bolívar 's life that has no historical precedent , as there is no record of the last 14 days of his life . In García Márquez 's account readers observe Bolívar intimately , seeing... |
The General in His Labyrinth also confronts the methods of official historians by using an oral style of narration . The narration can be considered an oral account in that it is woven from the verbal interactions of everyday people . Alvarez Borland explains that the advantage of this technique , as discussed by Walt... |
The historian Ben Hughes commented on the novel : " The Liberator 's British confidants , including Daniel O 'Leary , were amongst the closest figures to the general in this period . Nevertheless , they are ignored in the novel . Instead , Márquez uses the character of a fictional Colombian servant , José Palacios , a... |
= = Comparisons with other García Márquez novels = = |
In an interview published in the Colombian weekly Revista Semana on March 20 , 1989 , García Márquez told María Elvira Samper , " At bottom , I have written only one book , the same one that circles round and round , and continues on . " Palencia @-@ Roth suggests that this novel is a " labyrinthine summation ... of G... |
Like the Patriarch in García Márquez 's The Autumn of the Patriarch , Bolívar was an absolute dictator . The Patriarch is never identified by name ; Bolívar , too , is identified chiefly by his title . Bolívar also invites comparison with Colonel Aureliano Buendía in One Hundred Years of Solitude : both characters bel... |
Palencia @-@ Roth notes that critics have been struck by the humorless elegiac style of The General in His Labyrinth ; its dark mood and somber message is similar to that of The Autumn of the Patriarch . Love is a theme common to both Love in the Time of Cholera and The General in His Labyrinth , but the latter is con... |
Isabel Alvarez Borland , in her essay " The Task of the Historian in El general en su laberinto " , claims that " ... while El general en su laberinto is in many ways a continuation of García Márquez 's criticism of Latin America 's official history seen in his earlier works , the novel contrasts sharply with his prev... |
In a summary of Edward Hood 's book La ficcion de Gabriel García Márquez : Repetición e intertextualidad , García Márquez is characterized as an author who uses repetition and autointertextualidad ( intertextuality between the works of a single author ) extensively in his fiction , including in The General in His Laby... |
= = Genre = = |
Critics consider García Márquez 's book in terms of the historical novel , but differ over whether the label is appropriate . In his review of The General in his Labyrinth , Selden Rodman hesitated to call it a novel , since it was so heavily researched , giving Bolívar 's views " on everything from life and love to h... |
David Bushnell , writing in The Hispanic American Historical Review , points out that the work is less a pure historical account than others suggest . García Márquez 's Bolívar is a man " who wanders naked through the house , suffers constipation , uses foul language , and much more besides . " He argues that document... |
= = Reception = = |
The General in His Labyrinth was relatively poorly received by the general public in the United States , despite the praise of critics . Critic Ilan Stavans , who himself praised the book as " one of the writer 's most sophisticated and accomplished " , attributes this to the novel 's time period and to its profusion ... |
The novel generated huge controversy in Latin America : some Venezuelan and Colombian politicians described its depiction of Bolívar as " profane " . According to Stavans , they accused García Márquez of " defaming the larger @-@ than @-@ life reputation of a historical figure who , during the nineteenth century , str... |
More positively , Nelson Bocaranda , a Venezuelan TV commentator , considers the novel to be a tonic for Latin American culture : " people here saw a Bolívar who is a man of flesh and bones just like themselves " . Mexican author Carlos Fuentes agrees with Bocaranda saying : " What comes across beautifully and poignan... |
Novelist and critic Barbara Mujica comments that the book 's English translator , Edith Grossman , fully captures the multiple levels of meaning of the text , as well as García Márquez 's modulations in tone . García Márquez himself has admitted that he prefers his novels in their English translations . |
= = Publication history = = |
The original Spanish version of The General in His Labyrinth was published simultaneously in Argentina , Colombia , Mexico , and Spain in 1989 . The first American edition was listed as a best seller in The New York Times the following year . |
The novel has been translated into many languages since its first publication in Spanish , as detailed by Sfeir de González in 2003 . |
= Copia ( museum ) = |
Copia : The American Center for Wine , Food & the Arts was a non @-@ profit museum and educational center in downtown Napa , California , dedicated to wine , food and the arts of American culture . The center , planned and largely funded by vintners Robert and Margrit Mondavi , was open from 2001 to 2008 . The museum ... |
Copia hosted its opening celebration on November 18 , 2001 . Among other notable people , Julia Child helped fund the venture , which established a restaurant named Julia 's Kitchen . Copia struggled to achieve its anticipated admissions , and had difficulty in repaying its debts . Proceeds from ticket sales , members... |
= = History = = |
= = = Name = = = |
The museum was named after Copia , the Roman goddess of wealth and plenty . According to Joseph Spence in Polymetis ( 1755 ) , Copia is a name used to describe the goddess Abundantia in poetry , and was referred to as Bona Copia in Ovid 's Metamorphoses . |
= = = Background = = = |
The city of Napa has historically not received as many wine country tourists as the cities north of it . A $ 300 million flood management project around the turn of the 21st century to widen the Napa River and raise bridges prompted building developments . In the early 2000s , a large development was completed in the ... |
The museum opened in 2001 , two months after the September 11 attacks . The museum 's visitor attendance was much lower than what was projected ; the museum partially attributed that to the depressed tourist economy stemming from the attacks . |
= = = Conception and construction = = = |
In 1988 , vintner Robert Mondavi , his wife Margrit Mondavi , and other members of the wine industry began to look into establishing an institution in Napa County to educate , promote , and celebrate American excellence and achievements in the culinary arts , visual arts , and winemaking . Three organizations supporte... |
When the organization purchased the property , it was an empty lot next to a tire store . Steve Carlin , founder of the Oxbow Public Market , believed that Copia 's establishment helped expand Napa , its downtown area , and the Oxbow District . Construction of the facility triggered a significant growth in development... |
= = = Decline and bankruptcy = = = |
Although the facility did attract visitors , local residents ' support failed to reach the numbers expected by the founders . Original projections of 300 @,@ 000 admissions per year were never met . In October 2006 , the museum announced plans to turn galleries into conference rooms , remove most of the museum 's focu... |
In September 2008 , Garry McGuire announced that 24 of 80 employees were being laid off and the days of operation would be reduced from 7 to 3 per week . Attendance figures had never reached either original or updated projections , causing the facility to operate annually in the red since its opening . In November , h... |
Writing about the failure of the project , The New York Times and other newspapers suggested that Copia had failed to clearly define its focus . Potential tourists were left feeling unsure whether they were visiting a museum , a cooking school , or a promotional center for wine . |
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