Overview
A psychological study of rural life on the Venezuelan plains, Doña Bárbara depicts the struggle for control of an estate, symbolizing the battle between opposing forces. Santos Luzardo defends the law and progress while Doña Bárbara represents the darkness behind violence and passion. The confrontation between civilized life outside of the plains and the barbaric aspects of rural society accurately portrays early 20th-century Venezuelan life. This regionalist novel inspired the magic realism of modern Latin American literature. Author Biography
Rómulo Gallegos was a Venezuelan novelist, journalist, and politician. He was elected president of Venezuela in 1948 but was forced out of office in a coup d'état. In 1960, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is the author of El forastero, Pobre negro, La rebelión, Sobre la misma tierra, and El último Solar, among others.