Don Segundo Sombra

Ricardo Guiraldes's great novel of the Argentine pampa, "Don Segundo Sombra", published in 1926, has been celebrated both as a national epic and as an elegy for the passing of an era. Newly translated by Patricia Owen Steiner, it is a valuable addition to the University of Pittsburgh's series of translations from 20th-century Latin American poetry and fiction. Its coming-of-age story of a young gaucho, Fabio Caceres, represented for many the essential virtues of a disappearing civilisation based on cattle raising and the strength of the gaucho in his struggle with the elements. "Don Segundo Sombra" makes a cult of solitary courage and the laws of nature. Yet it also documents a change from one way of life to another. Argentina, long before 1926, had moved away from dependence on cattle and the gaucho; life on the wide open spaces had already become part of legend. When it was first published, the book was enthusiastically received and became an instant classic, gaining more critical attention in this century than any other work published in Argentina, except perhaps for the writings of Borges. This critical edition contains a general introduction by the volume coordinator, Gwen Kirkpatrick, a glossary and six essays of background and criticism about the novel, making it ideal for classsroom use.