THE FIRST EDWARDS BELLO OR THE NOVELIST BEFORE EL ROTO

Abstract

Before El roto (1920) which gave its author a wide audience in South America and across the Hispanic world, Joaquín Edwards Bello wrote a number of texts which include his two earliest narratives, El monstruo and El inútil (not yet translated into English). Both novels were published by the Centennial; both keep a close connection between them, inviting useful comparisons. The theme of loss –lost ideals, lost illusions, lost faith in political values, etc.– allows an intensive exploration of the national character, dominated by the opression of family and social class. Monstrosity and idleness seem thus to be symptoms of a society that Edwards Bello begins to observe becoming an outstanding chronicler, witness, and critic of Chilean life.