Martín Rivas (1862) is a novel by Alberto Blest Gana. Regarded as the first Chilean novel, Martín Rivas is a powerful story of romance, class, and national unity from an author who served for decades as a diplomat and ambassador for Chile. Inspired by the social realism of Honoré de Balzac, Blest Gana retains his European roots while remaining true to the emerging culture of his country. Martín Rivas has always feared the walls closing in. Born and raised in a poor mining community, he sees the limits placed on the lives of his friends and family. Generational poverty, instability, and bad health plague the workers of northern Chile, and he dreams of something more for his life. With his father’s approval, Rivas travels to Santiago to take a job as a servant. Working in the home of a wealthy aristocrat, he does his best to acclimate himself to the manners and desires of the rich, but ultimately loses focus to his employer’s beautiful daughter. Madly in love, he feels the walls inch closer once again. How will he reconcile his emotions with society’s disapproval of relationships between members of opposing classes? How will he convince a man who controls his livelihood to allow him to court his own daughter? As he agonizes over his newly complicated reality, Rivas recalls how much he has overcome and wonders if it was worth the endless struggle. This edition of Alberto Blest Gana’s Martín Rivas is a classic of Chilean literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Alberto Blest Gana (1830-1920) was a Chilean novelist and diplomat. Born in Santiago, he was raised by William Cunningham Blest, an Irishman, and María de la Luz Gana Darrigrandi, a Chilean aristocrat. After studying at the Military Academy and in France, Blest Gana pursued his political and literary interests. Inspired by the works of French novelist Honoré de Balzac, Blest Gana employed European writing techniques popularized by the Realist movement, authoring ten novels on the impact of history and politics on individual lives. His book Martín Rivas (1862), the first Chilean novel, is recognized as a masterpiece of Latin American fiction, but the success of its publication led to an increased demand for his diplomatic work. After a serving as an administrative official in Colchagua province, Blest Ganawas appointed Chilean ambassador to France and Britain and served for many years. He returned to literature upon retirement and continued to publish novels until the end of his life. Blest Gana is celebrated today for his for his mastery of style and intuitive sense of sociopolitical reality.
