"I imitated him, to the point of transcription, to the point of devoted and impassioned plagiarism. I felt: Macedonio is metaphysics, is literature. Whoever preceded him might shine in history, but they were all rough drafts of Macedonio, imperfect previous versions. To not imitate this canon would have represented incredible negligence."—Jorge Luis Borges
The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel) is the very definition of a novel written ahead of its time. Macedonio (known to everyone by his unusual first name) worked on this novel in the 1930s and early '40s, during the heyday of Argentine literary culture, and around the same time that At Swim-Two-Birds was published, a novel that has quite a bit in common with Macedonio's masterpiece.
 In many ways, Museum is an "anti-novel." It opens with more than fifty prologues—including ones addressed "To My Authorial Persona," "To the Critics," and "To Readers Who Will Perish If They Don't Know What the Novel Is About"—that are by turns philosophical, outrageous, ponderous, and cryptic. These pieces cover a range of topics from how the upcoming novel will be received to how to thwart "skip-around readers" (by writing a book that defies linearity!).
The second half of the book is the novel itself, a novel about a group of characters (some borrowed from other texts) who live on an estancia called "la novella" . . .
A hilarious and often quite moving book, The Museum of Eterna's Novel redefined the limits of the genre, and has had a lasting impact on Latin American literature. Authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, and Ricardo Piglia have all fallen under its charm and high-concepts, and, at long last, English-speaking readers can experience the book that helped build the reputation of Borges's mentor.
Macedonio Fernández was one of the most influential—and strangest—Argentine authors ever. He was Borges's mentor; he campaigned for president by leaving notecards with the word "Macedonio" in cafes; he started a utopian society. He also wrote the "Last Bad Novel" (Adriana Buenos Aires) and the "First Good One" (The Museum of Eterna's Novel).
Margaret Schwartz is an assistant professor at Fordham University. She was a Fulbright fellow to Argentina in 2004, during which time she researched the life and works of Macedonio Fernández.Adam Thirlwell is the author of the novels Politics and The Escape. His book about literature and translation, The Delighted States, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 2008. He has twice been named as one of Granta's "Best Young British Novelists."

The Museum of Eterna's Novel (The First Good Novel)

Literature & Fiction

Macedonio Fernández

Literary

Open Letter

Antologia de la Poesia Hispanoamericana Contemporanea 1914-1970 (Spanish Edition)

José Juan Tablada

Ramon Lopez Velarde

et.al.

cesar-vallejo

VICENTE HUIDOBRO

GABRIELA MISTRAL

Mariano Brull

Oliverio Girondo

Poetry

Alianza Editorial, S.A.

Museo de la novela de la eterna (Biblioteca Ayacucho) (Spanish Edition)

World Literature

Biblioteca Ayacucho

Macedonio Fernandez definio las condiciones para una poetica de la novela en la Argentina y establecio en Museo de la novela de la Eterna las bases de una historia del genero. Propone una relacion directa con las grandes poeticas europeas del genero y define ahi la especificidad de la tradicion. No piensa en el referente ni en la localizacion sino en los usos (irreverentes) a que somete los procedimientos y las formas del genero. Sencillamente inventa una historia nueva, funda el origen: escribe la primera novela buena y anula la tradicion anterior. Con este acto que borra todo contexto se integra en la mas tipica de las tradiciones argentinas. Esta novela, ordenada por Adolfo de Obieta, trasciende el marco de las letras latinoamericanas y permite suponer que toda literatura de vanguardia, de alguna manera, tiene un punto de contacto con esta singularisima propuesta macedoniana

Museo de la Novela de la Eterna (Coleccion Archivos)

History & Criticism

Fondo De Cultura Economica USA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Macedonio Fernández. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Macedonio Fernández