Potpourri was released from press as Eugenio Cambaceres left Buenos
Aires for Europe. This circumstance, plus the fact that the book
omitted the author's name -though he was immediately and correctly
identified- added to the highly visible position of Cambaceres in
the local society, the many clues and social allusions within the
text, and the style and tone of the writing, all contributed to
secure it an immediate and smashing success. The scathing critique
of the Buenos Aires bourgeoisie unleashed bitter comments, that
fostered press runs never seen before in the country. Some readers
condemned the book invoking the ultimate need to kindle the
tenuous, and recently obtained, home political peace, whilst others
directly related the content to the French naturalist novel and
pornography. As a matter of fact the accusation of licentiousness
was no more than a pretext waved by a prudish oligarchy in its
efforts to hide a less than glorious social reality, deeply
contrasted with the positivism and free thinking progress stance it
flaunted. Though the content can appear as a fierce condemnation,
even a pamphlet, against social hypocrisy, uncaring feminine
education, the triumph of money and the new rich but uneducated
portion of society, the writing also shows high specific literary
qualities: renewal and enrichment of writing techniques, vanguard
narrative structures, an agile and often humorous style, colloquial
tone -even argot- and originally striking metaphors. All enough to
establish the author as the true founder of the Argentine novel,
leaving an unmistakable mark in the XIX and XX Centuries
literature. In this edition Claude Cymerman -prof. Emeritus of
Latin American Literature at the Rouen University, France, and
highly regarded scholar on Cambaceres- adds an introduction that
helps understand the importance of Cambaceres within the River
Plate social and political circumstances, his standing in Latin
American literature, and to place Potpourri among his later
literary productions. Also the footnotes -both lexical and
contextual- give the necessary clues to fully understand the exact
meaning of this work, the first an more full of Latin, Italian,
English and, above all, French terms that sprinkle the Cambaceres
production.
General
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