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Cagliostro is a lurid tale of magic and secret societies during the
reign of Luis XVI, centred on the figure of the Italian occultist
Giuseppe Balsamo, known under his alias of Count Alessandro di
Cagliostro. The book owes its style of presentation to the example
of German expressionist cinema, of the kind exemplified by The
Cabinet of Dr Caligari. In the early 1920s, Vicente Huidobro-always
fascinated by the new medium of film-wrote a film script on the
subject of Cagliostro, in a treatment apparently very much in tune
with the German expressionist cinema of the era. The film was
apparently shot in 1923 by the Romanian director Mime Mizu but it
was scrapped due to dissatisfaction over the editing. No trace of
the film survives, although there are three pages from a script in
the author's papers. A revised version of the script was submitted
to The League for Better Motion Pictures in New York and won a
$10,000 award as the best candidate for filming. Alas for the
author, this was just at the point when the "talkies" arrived and
this style of film-making was immediately rendered outmoded.
However, the novella, which has many cinematic elements, was
published in English translation in 1931 in both London and New
York, to positive reviews. It appeared in the original Spanish only
in 1934, in Santiago, Chile, where it had no impact at all. This
edition reproduces the text of the 1931 translation. "[This book]
is my answer to the question whether the cinematograph can
influence the novel." (Vicente Huidobro)
In 1928, shortly after his marriage to Ximena Amunategui, and after
meeting the actor Douglas Fairbanks, who expressed interest in the
possibility of a new swashbuckler, Huidobro began writing his
version of the Cid legend as a novel. The result is a highly
readable, if slightly arch, version of the story, that casts aside
the style of romantic 19th-century historical fiction in favour of
more modern approaches and cinematic influences. Style aside, the
book can be read a straightforward tale of adventure that sits
happily alongside the 1961 epic movie that starred Charlton Heston
and Sophia Loren and had thousands of extras. More than one line of
the script for that movie sounds as if lifted from Huidobro's
novel. The translation by Wells appeared quickly, under the title
Portrait of a Paladin in 1931, in both London and New York, and
this reprint offers the original version with only some minor
edits, together with a new afterword and an extensive glossary to
aid with figures, both legendary and genuine, from Old Spain.
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