The Temptation of the Impossible

Mario Vargas Llosa is a prolific novelist and essayist whose literary criticism includes "A Writer's Reality, Letters to a Young Novelist", and studies of Flaubert and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of his books of essays, "Making Waves" (Penguin), won the National Book Critics Circle Award. His novels include "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto", and "The Feast of the Goat". Born in Peru, he now divides his time among Lima, London, and Madrid.

Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Victor Hugo, the Ocean 1 Chapter I. The Divine Stenographer 11 Chapter II. The Dark Vein of Destiny 34 The Law of Chance or the Order of Coincidence 34 The Irresistible Traps 41 The Ambush in the Gorbeau Tenement 43 The Barricade at la Chanvrerie 45 The Paris Sewers 47 Elusive Freedom 52 Chapter III. Touchy Monsters 56 A Character without Qualities 57 The Saint 61 The Just Man 65 A Puritan World 70 The Fanatic 75 An Angel with a Dirty Face 80 Collective Characters 84 Chapter IV. The Great Theater of the World 87 Adjectives to Describe the Show 89 Performance, Beauty, and Life 92 Light and Shadow 95 Sets 96 The Victor at Waterloo 97 Human Putrefaction 98 Life as Fiction 102 Chapter V. Rich, Poor, Leisured, Idle, and Marginal 105 Reformist Idealism 110 The Just 114 A Society Rebuilt 118 The Victims: Confinement and Women 120 A Source of Social Injustice: The Law 122 A Stupid and Cruel Monster 124 Chapter VI. Civilized Barbarians 131 Long Live Death! 132 Slow-Motion Progress 134 Victor Hugo and the Insurrection of 1832 138 Chapter VII. From Heaven Above 146 The Enumeration of the Infinite 148 Attempting the Impossible 154 The Total Novel or the Deicidal Impulse 156 Chapter VIII. The Temptation of the Impossible 165 Notes 179 Index 185