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Fulgentius

Fulgentius

By César Aira

Aira holds a fun-house mirror up to the genre of historical fiction in this novel about an aging Roman general on what may be his last campaign into the provinces.

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Book Information

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Publish Date: 03/07/2023
Pages: 176
ISBN-13: 9780811231695
ISBN-10: 0811231690
Language: English

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September 08, 2023

Consider new books and new perspectives in our 2023 Hispanic Heritage Month booklist. READ FULL DESCRIPTION

September 05, 2023

September 5, 2023

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Full Description

By profession I am a soldier, a general in the glorious Roman army. As a playwright, I think of myself as a sublime amateur.

In Cesar Aira's new novel, Fulgentius, a sixty-seven-year-old imperial Roman general--"Rome's most illustrious and experienced"--is sent to pacify the remote province of Pannonia.He is a thoughtful, introspective person, a saturnine intellectual who greatly enjoys being on the march away from his loving family, and the sometimes deadly intrigues of Rome. Fulgentius is also a playwright (though of exactly one play) and in every city he pacifies, he stages a grand production of his farcical tragedy (written at the tender age of twelve) about a man who becomes a famous general only to be murdered "at the hands of shadowy foreigners." Curiously, what he had imagined as a child turns out to be the story of his life, almost. As the playwright-turned-general broods obsessively about his only work, the magnificent Lupine Legion--"a city in movement" of 6,000 men, an invincible corps of seasoned fighters wearing their signature wolfskin caps--kills, burns, pillages, and loots their way to victory. But what does victory mean?

About the Author

César Aira was born in Coronel Pringles, Argentina in 1949, and has lived in Buenos Aires since 1967. He taught at the University of Buenos Aires (about Copi and Rimbaud) and at the University of Rosario (Constructivism and Mallarmé), and has translated and edited books from France, England, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, and Venezuela.

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