Novel
El Moto
Not translated into English
Joaquín García Monge · 1900
Synopsis
In the town of Dos Cercas, José Blas, a poor young peasant and orphan nicknamed the Moto, depends on his godfather, don Sebastián Solano, a calculating and influential man. At the feast of the Immaculate Conception, he falls in love with Cundila, daughter of don Soledad Guillén, the village notable; the two young people love each other in secret, and the Moto begs Father Yanuario to intercede with the parents. During these negotiations, a fall from a horse seriously injures him.
Context
The novel appeared in 1900 in San José under the title El Moto : costumbres costarricenses, when its author had just obtained his baccalauréat; it is set in Dos Cercas, today Desamparados, his native town. Critics see in it the passage from the sketch of manners to the realist narrative: where the previous generation made the peasant a picturesque or comic figure, the book makes him the subject of a tragedy and calls into question the alliance of the notables, the Church and the oligarchic order. Ana Francisca Fernández Ulloa notes in it the influence of José María de Pereda, Émile Zola and Leo Tolstoy.
Who it is for
A short novel, of about sixty pages, in Spanish, in which peasant language holds a large place.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by some critics as the first Costa Rican novel, or the country's first realist novel; reissued many times.
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