“Freedom is often the first casualty of war.”
Gabriel García Márquez book The General in His Labyrinth
Source: The General in His Labyrinth
Quotes from bookThe General in His Labyrinth
Gabriel García MárquezOriginal title El general en su laberinto (Spanish, 1989)
The General in His Labyrinth is a 1989 dictator novel by Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is a fictionalized account of the last seven months of Simón Bolívar, liberator and leader of Gran Colombia. The book traces Bolívar's final journey from Bogotá to the Caribbean coastline of Colombia in his attempt to leave South America for exile in Europe. Breaking with the traditional heroic portrayal of Bolívar El Libertador, García Márquez depicts a pathetic protagonist, a prematurely aged man who is physically ill and mentally exhausted. The story explores the labyrinth of Bolívar's life through the narrative of his memories, in which "despair, sickness, and death inevitably win out over love, health, and life".Following the success of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, García Márquez decided to write about the "Great Liberator" after reading an unfinished novel by his friend Álvaro Mutis. He borrowed the setting—Bolívar's voyage down the Magdalena River in 1830—from Mutis. García Márquez spent two years researching the subject, encompassing the extensive memoirs of Bolívar's Irish aide-de-camp, Daniel Florencio O'Leary, as well as numerous other historical documents and consultations with academics.
“Life had already given him sufficient reasons for knowing that no defeat was the final one.”
Gabriel García Márquez book The General in His Labyrinth
Source: The General in His Labyrinth
“I'll never fall in love again… it's like having two souls at the same time.”
Gabriel García Márquez book The General in His Labyrinth
Source: The General in His Labyrinth
“I go to seek a great perhaps”
Gabriel García Márquez book The General in His Labyrinth
Source: The General in His Labyrinth
