Relatos fantásticos

by Mircea Eliade

Uniformes de general, Ivan, Un hombre grande, Doce mil cabezas de ganado: cuatro relatos fantásticos de Mircea Eliade, aparentemente muy distintos entre sí por los personajes retratados y las situaciones en que estos evolucionan, pero que conforman un todo unitario. Ello se debe, no sólo a la magistral habilidad del autor para mantener al lector en vilo -creando un ambiente de irrealidad a partir de elementos tomados, las más de las veces, de la realidad cotidiana, sino también, y sobre todo, a que lo fantástico le permite abordar el misterio de la muerte en lo que ésta tiene de tránsito místico hacia otra forma de vida. Una vez más, Mircea Eliade, el historiador de las religiones, el pensador, se pone discretamente al servicio de Mircea Eliade el escritor y fabulador. El resultado es estrictamente espléndido.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Romanian Literature, Classics, Short Stories

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Romanian-born historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion in the last century. Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years. He earned international fame with LE MYTHE DE L'ÉTERNAL RETOUR (1949, The Myth of the Eternal Return), an interpretation of religious symbols and imagery. Eliade was much interested in the world of the unconscious. The central theme in his novels was erotic love.

Reviews

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare story collections that you will want to read every year. You can easily put it close to Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Phillip K. Dick, Neil Gaiman or Junot Diaz. You can grab either this or the 5 volume print, as the content is the same. The best thing when reading this is that you can follow the stories in the order in which they were written, even tough maybe this is not the order in which the events take place. My favourites are Youth Without Youth, The Secret of Dr. Honigberger and On Mantuleasa Street. We are just starting to get into the universe he built as Hollywood starts making movies based on these stories. We can only hope they will try to honour his literary legacy the same way Francis Ford Coppola did.

[S̶e̶a̶n̶ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd little book intended for Romanian language learners and containing but three stories, 'chosen partly for their interest and literary value, partly as having a fairly high proportion of useful vocabulary and a reasonable balance of description and dialogue'. Of the three, I most enjoyed Mihai Niculescu's 'The Cobbler of Hydra' with its mysterious island setting and hallucinatory tinge. The first Eliade story is a bit inscrutable, seemingly straightforward with a twist ending of which I'm still not sure I grasp the full significance. Not worth lingering over, though, given my general disinterest in the context. The second Eliade story, about a man who grows increasingly larger, offered more intriguing potential but ended up only average over its entirety. Note: The other two reviews of this currently on GR (one in English, one in Romanian) appear to refer to either a different edition or a separate work altogether, for they reference other stories not included in this book.

[Manuel Alfonseca · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENGLISH: My edition contains four stories by Mircea Eliade with some fantastic elements, according to the title of the collection. Other editions have different stories.
1. Two General's Uniforms (1971): A disjointed, difficult to follow story, which at first alternates between two different scenes that eventually come together. The characters are quite strange, and their mutual relation is little developed. The ending is fantastic.
2. Ivan (9163): A war story with a tragic ending, with interspersed scenes that in the end the reader deduces were dreams or hallucinatory visions.
3. A Great Man (or A Big Man, 1945): A man suffers from an illness that makes him grow excessively and turns him into a monster incapable of living with others.
4. Twelve Thousand Heads of Cattle (1952): Perhaps this is the story I liked best. Another war scene, with ghosts or a hallucination.

ESPAÑOL: Mi edición contiene cuatro relatos de Mircea Eliade con algún elemento fantástico, como dice el título de la colección. Otras ediciones tienen otros cuentos.
1. Uniformes de general: Un relato un poco deslabazado y difícil de seguir, que al principio alterna dos escenas diferentes que al final se reúnen en una sola. Los personajes son bastante raros, y la relación entre algunos de ellos está poco desarrollada. El final es fantástico.
2. Iván: Un cuento de guerra con final trágico, en el que se entremezclan escenas que al final se deduce eran sueños o visiones alucinatorias.
3. Un hombre grande: Un hombre sufre una enfermedad que le hace crecer desmesuradamente y le convierte en un monstruo incapaz de vivir con los demás.
4. Doce mil cabezas de ganado: Quizá sea este relato el que más me ha gustado. Otra escena de guerra, con fantasmas o alucinación.

[Daria Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mai mult de doi ani, ca sa finalizez aceste volume, evident cu pauze lungi. Unele povestiri am fost nevoită sa le recitesc pentru ca le uitasem. Pe alocuri a devenit foarte greu de digerat, unele nuvele nu mi-au plăcut absolut deloc, altele m-au impresionat foarte mult, pe altele le știam deja.
Iubesc proza fantastica a lui Eliade și sunt foarte fericita si mândra ca am reușit sa le citesc pe toate !
Recomand oricui iubește cititul și genul acesta de scriere, însă va avertizez ca oricât de pasionați ati fi, doua volume cu peste 20 de titluri sunt greu de parcurs.
Dintre titluri, cred ca cea care m-a impresionat cel mai mult încă din facultate, a fost și a rămas, “Domnișoara Christina”, cea care mi-a plăcut cel mai mult e “Tinerețe fără tinerețe” și cea pe care nu am înțeles-o și nu o apreciez absolut deloc “Incognito la Buchenwald”. Iar in “Șarpele” m-a dezamăgit finalul.

[Rianna Dumitrescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

🧑🏻‍💼👩‍❤️‍👨👒👗🪭🪢🎖️🃏🪁🀄🖼️🌫️🌁🏞️🌅🎆🌆🌃🗾🗺️🎐🪻🌷🌹🌸💮🦋 🏕️🎡🏡🚪🛏️🛋️🪞🪟🧮🧸🕰️🔮📒📔📗📘📕📖✉️📑🧧🔖🃏🪁🀄🖼️🎨🖌️⬜🧵🪡🧤💍💎🟦⬜🎉🎊🎀🎁🟨

[Melisa Esra✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

De fapt am citit Șanțurile dar nu a auzit Goodreads de ea💔

[Terragyrl3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and dreamy.