Le Royaume de ce monde — Réalisme merveilleux et révolution haïtienne (1949)

Authors : Alejo Carpentier

Genres : roman

Original language : espagnol

Editions

  • Editorial Cultural (Santo Domingo), 1949 es
  • Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1957 en
    ISBN 9780374521974
  • Gallimard, coll. Folio n°1248, 1980 fr
    ISBN 9782070372485

The Kingdom of This World (1949)

The Kingdom of This World is the second novel by Alejo Carpentier and the work that introduced the “real marvelous” (lo real maravilloso) to the international literary world. Published in 1949 in Havana, the novel is set in Haiti from the 18th century to the early 19th century, from the French colony to Haitian independence.

The plot follows Ti-Noil, a black slave who becomes free, witnessing the Haitian revolutions and dramas: Dessalines’ Black conspiracy, the reign of King Henri Christophe (who built the citadel La Ferrière), and the intrigues of Napoleon and the French generals. But the true hero of the book is voodoo—the religion that, for Carpentier, embodies the very spirit of a people. It is in the preface of this novel that Carpentier introduces the concept of American marvelous realism, which became the literary foundation of an entire movement.

The novel was adapted into a film by Claude Lanzmann (Les Années du soir, 1969) and is today a mandatory classic of world literature.

Sources