One Hundred Years of Solitude

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One Hundred Years of Solitude (or Cien años de soledad), is a novel written by Gabriel García Márquez. Released in 1967, it recounts the history of the fictional town of Macondo. One Hundred Years is Márquez's most well-known work.

Characters[]

Colonel Aureliano Buendía - Jose Arcadio Buendía's younger son, a man with the gift of precognition
José Arcadio Buendía - the patriarch of the Buendía family
Úrsula Iguarán Buendía - José Arcadio's wife and the mother of Aureliano and José Arcadio Buendía I
José Arcadio Buendía I - the oldest son of José Arcadio Buendía
Arcadio Buendía - the son of José Arcadio Buendía I and Pilar Ternera
Rebeca - an orphan that José Arcadio and Úrsula adopt
Aureliano José - the son of Pilar Ternera and Aureliano
Amaranta Arcadio Buendía - Úrsula's biological daughter
Pietro Crespi - an Italian that both Rebeca and Amaranta fall in love with
Pilar Ternera - a fortune-teller with whom José I falls in love with
Melquíades - a gypsy who befriends José Arcadio and gives him various fantastical (to him) inventions
Remedios Segundo the Beauty - the daughter of Santa Sophia de la Piedad and Arcadio
José Arcadio Segundo - the son of Santa Sophia de la Piedad and Arcadio
Aureliano Segundo - the son of Santa Sophia de la Piedad and Arcadio
Don Apolinar Moscote - a magistrate sent to Macondo
José Raquel Moncada - a Conservative who becomes the mayor of Macondo
Fernanda del Carpio - Aureliano Segundo's wife
Petra Cotes - Aureliano Segundo's lover
Father Nicanor Reyna - a reverend sent to Macondo
Father Antonio Isabel - Father Reyna's successor
Santa Sofia de la Piedad - a virgin with whom Arcadio falls in love
Remedios Moscote - the daughter of Don Moscote with whom Aureliano falls in love with
Gerineldo Márquez - one of Aureliano's friends, possibly meant to be one of the author's ancestors
Magnífico Visbal - one of Aureliano's friends
Visitacíon - a Guajiro who visits Macondo to hide from a plague of insomnia
Prudencio Aguilar - a cockfighter in Riohacha

Publisher's summary[]

One of the world's most famous novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, blends the natural with the supernatural in on one of the most magical reading experiences on earth.

"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice"

Gabriel García Márquez's great masterpiece is the story of seven generations of the Buendía family and of Macondo, the town they have built. Though little more than a settlement surrounded by mountains, Macondo has its wars and disasters, even its wonders and its miracles. A microcosm of Colombian life, its secrets lie hidden, encoded in a book, and only Aureliano Buendía can fathom its mysteries and reveal its shrouded destiny. Blending political reality with magic realism, fantasy and comic invention, One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the most daringly original works of the twentieth century.

Plot[]

Chapter One[]

As Colonel Aureliano Buendía stands in front of a firing squad, he remembers the time that his father showed him ice for the first time. Several decades previously, the village of Macondo (where the Buendía family lived) was visited by a group of gypsies led by a mysterious man named Melquíades. The patriarch of the family, José Arcadio Buendía, bought several of these inventions. The first of these was a magnet that José tried to use to exhume gold from the ground but only brought up an ancient suit of armor. Next, José bought a magnifying glass and tried to introduce it to the government as a weapon but got no response from them.

Once Melquíades learned of this, he gave José his money back and gave him a series of navigational equipment. With this, José figured out that the Earth was round - something that the villagers of Macondo did not believe until Melquíades backed him up. Melquíades (who aged rapidly from various diseases gotten on his travels through the world) then built a massive alchemists' laboratory for José. José soon became obsessed with alchemy - much to his wife Úrsula's chagrin, as José's experiments were less than helpful. While José was obsessed with the various fantastical developments that Melquíades built, Úrsula remained focused on the earthly matters of the village of Macondo.

Once José stopped caring about alchemy, he became obsessed with bringing the technological innovations of the gypsies and the outside world to Macondo. Initially, José planned an exhibition to the lands in the north, which he believed was the only cardinal direction which would bring them to civilization, as the east is where the abandoned city of Riohacha are and the south and the west are lands of desolate swamp. Once this exhibition began, José soon found that the lands to the north were even more desolate than the lands to the south and west and discovered the ancient remains of a crashed ship in these lands. This convinced him that Macondo was completely surrounded by water and he decided to move the village to a better location. Before he could do this, Úrsula convinced the people of Macondo to not follow and then convinced her husband not to leave on his own by telling him that she will die if it keeps him in Macondo.

Shortly after this, José began getting actually involved in the teaching of his sons Aureliano and José Arcadio I. While doing this, the gypsies return without Melquíades but with even more fantastical inventions. While inquiring about this, José learns that Melquíades died and was buried at sea. Though grief-stricken by this, José's grief is soon overcame by his fascination with a block of ice - which he pays to let his sons touch. Though José I refuses, Arcadio puts his hand onto the ice - though quickly takes it off as he fears it is boiling.

Chapter Two[]

Several generations previously, Úrsula’s great-great-grandmother was so frightened by the attacks of Francis Drake and his pirate crew that she accidentally burned herself and had to live in a bedroom without windows. This great-great-grandmother's husband went into business with a Buendía and tied the two families together. This makes Úrsula and José cousins, something that made their families fearful of their union - as their coupling could have produced animalistic children - and made Úrsula wear a chastity belt. This caused the people of Riohacha to start mocking José for his perceived impotence. After a fellow cockfighter by the name of Prudencio Aguilar mocked José to his face, José killed the man with his spear before finally consummating his marriage to Úrsula. This (along with the spirit of Prudencio haunting the couple) caused them to move into the wilderness with several other Riohachans hoping to find what was on the other side of the mountains. While on this journey, Úrsula gave birth to José I. The journey (which lasted for two years) soon crossed these mountains and found nothing but swamps. While camped beside a river, José had a vision of a city made of mirrors and built the city of immortals right where they were camped.

Several years later, José realized that his vision of the city of mirrors was a vision of a city made of ice after seeing the ice being displayed by the gypsies. Though José dreamed of making this vision a reality, he decided to focus on his children's education. Aureliano took an inclination to his father's alchemy while José I shunned it and instead found comfort in the advances of a cleaner and fortune teller named Pilar Ternera. Throughout this, Úrsula was pregnant with a daughter by the name of Amaranta who was born "light and watery, like a newt". This is closely followed by the arrival of the gypsies and Pilar's reveal that she was pregnant with José I's child. José I fled Macondo with the gypsies due to this news, with Úrsula leaving Macondo to try to find her runaway son. While Úrsula was away, José cared for baby Amaranta and taught his remaining son the secrets of alchemy - which is somewhat hindered by strange mystical happenings in the laboratory. Several months later, Úrsula returns from her voyage through the swamps. Though she did not find her son, she did find a route through the swamps towards civilization.

Chapter Three[]

While the village began to be introduced to the world around it, Pilar Ternera gave birth to José I's son - who was also named José Arcadio. To reduce confusion, he is simply known as Arcadio. Around the same time, the Buendías let a Guajiro woman by the name of Visitacíon who fled a plague of insomnia stay with them while the gypsies returned - without José I. Shortly after a premonition from Aureliano, a young orphan named Rebeca who was (supposedly) related to José and Úrsula arrived, carrying her dead parents' bones in a bag. José and Úrsula decided to adopt the young orphan, but soon found that she had pica (something which they cured with somewhat extreme methods) and was carrying the plague of insomnia.

Soon, this plague spread to the Buendías and, from Úrsula's candy shop, the rest of Macondo. At first, José welcomed the extra time that the insomnia gave him but soon found himself dreaming while awake - and that he could experience the dreams of his family along with his own. A more insidious symptom of this plague soon begins to manifest - the people of Macondo begin to lose their memories. To fix this, Aureliano began writing down the names and functions of everything in the town and pasting it to those objects while the fortune-teller Pilar Ternera read both past and future in her cards. While José Arcadio worked on building a memory machine (something he had heard the gypsies describe many years before), Melquíades returned from the dead and presented José Arcadio with an elixir that restored memories completely.

Along with the elixir, Melquíades brought everything needed to make daguerreotypes and made a photograph of the Buendías before studying the predictions of Nostradamus while José Arcadio tried to use the daguerreotypes to make a photograph of God. By this time, Aureliano had become a master silversmith but still did not have a wife or even a lover. While visiting a troubadour, Aureliano met a girl forced into being a "lady of ill-repute" and decided to marry her to save her from this condition. Before he could do so, the girl and the troubadour left Macondo.

Soon, a threat more banal than the insomnia plague threatened the good feelings in Macondo - a magistrate by the name of Don Apolinar Moscote arrived with a letter demanding that all the houses in Macondo be painted blue. José Arcadio told the magistrate that no such thing would happen and that Macondo had no need for him, and the magistrate threatened to shoot him. As such, José Arcadio carried him out of town on his lapels. Soon, though the magistrate returned to town with his family and moved in - something José refused to stop as he did not want to make a scene in front of the magistrate's family. Instead, José Arcadio (alongside Arcadio) visited Moscote and made him rescind the order to repaint houses. Despite Moscote agreeing to this, José Arcadio insisted that the two of them are enemies.

Chapter Four[]

While renovating their house, Úrsula hired the services of an Italian pianola expert named Pietro Crespi to build one of these devices in their home. Though the device worked perfectly once Pietro left, José Arcadio soon got his hands on the device and (while trying to figure out how it worked and then rebuild it) accidentally broke it - making the notes play out of order. Despite this, the Buendías danced to it as though the pianola was working perfectly.

Once Pietro Crespi returned to fix the machine, both Rebeca and Amaranta fell in love with him - with Rebeca returning to her old habit of eating dirt and paint once he left. Meanwhile, Aureliano fell in love with Don Moscote's youngest daughter, Remedios. Both of these love were largely one-sided, with the family unaware of either of them until Rebeca had a tantrum when the mule carrying the mail didn't arrive on time. As such, José Arcadio set up a union between Rebeca and Pietro Crespi - much to Amaranta's chagrin, who told Rebeca that she will marry Pietro Crespi over her dead body. So that the wedding could take place, Úrsula took Amaranta on a trip to distract her. Despite this, Rebeca was extremely worried that Amaranta would stop the wedding and consulted the services of Pilar Ternera - who told her that she would have nothing to worry about as long as her parents were buried. As such, the Buendías find the bag of bones (which were accidentally walled up during the remodeling) and bury them.

Meanwhile, Pilar Ternera finds Aureliano outside after he blacked out in a brothel and brought him to her house. After sleeping with him, she promised to tell Remedios about Aureliano's love for her. Though Don Moscote was surprised that Aureliano wanted to marry his youngest daughter (who had not yet even reached puberty), he allowed the marriage as Aureliano promised to wait until Remedios was of age before marrying her. As such, Aureliano decided to become Remedios' teacher.

While all this is happening, Melquíades rapidly aged - rapidly becoming senile and soon drowning in a river. Though José Arcadio believed that Melquíades would eventually resurrect if his body was left out, he eventually agreed to have a funeral for him after three days of decay (though without a burial). This was the first funeral in Macondo (with the second being for Rebeca's parents). Pietro Crespi brought José Arcadio various mechanical objects to distract him from his grief at losing Melquíades. Though this seemingly works, José Arcadio soon became extremely invested in these objects - to the point of mania. After being visited by Prudencio Aguilar yet again, José Arcadio smashed everything in his laboratory while completely insensible and had to be tied to a tree.

Chapter Five[]

While Rebeca and and Aureliano's weddings were being planned, a priest named Father Nicanor Reyna arrived in Macondo is summoned to officiate the weddings. While Aureliano's wedding went off without a hitch, Pietro Crespi is sent away by a fraudulent letter telling him his mother was dying right before his wedding could take place. Though his services were no longer needed, Father Reyna decided to stay in Macondo and tried to fund the building of a church by showcasing his ability to levitate. Though most of the people in Macondo were amazed by this, José Arcadio (who babbled in Latin, a language only he and Father Reyna understood) remained unconvinced with this. Father Reyna tried to prove the existence of God to José Arcadio and, when this failed, tried to play checkers with the "mad" patriarch before (after becoming disturbed by the patriarch) returning to his church-building.

While the church was being built, Rebeca's wedding was postponed until it could be built. During this time, Amaranta tried everything to sabotage the wedding and even considered poisoning her adoptive sister with laudanum. Unfortunately, the wedding is postponed by something even worse - the sudden death of Remedios, possibly from miscarrying Aureliano's children or possibly from being accidentally poisoned by Amaranta. In the aftermath of Remedios' death, Amaranta adopted Pilar Ternera and Aureliano's son (whom Remedios had adopted), Aureliano José while Rebeca's wedding was delayed yet again.

During this delay, a very muscular and tattoo-covered José I returned from his time with the gypsies. José began using his newfound physique to get money by having women pay to "spend the night" with him. One of the women who is attracted to José is his sister Rebeca - who calls off her union with Pietro Crespi to marry José. Though the Buendías were disgusted by the union between the brother and sister, Father Reyna allowed it as the two were not biological siblings. As such, the new couple were booted out of the Buendía household and made to live on their own while Amaranta and Pietro started a relationship, though Amaranta avoided actually getting married to Pietro.

Around the same time, tensions between the Liberals and the Conservatives (whom Don Moscote sided with) began to rise. Due to his ties to the Moscotes, Aureliano listened to many of Don Moscote's tirades against the Liberals and found himself confused that people would fight wars over things that they could not see or touch. This was closely followed by the arrival of a revolutionary named Alirio Noguera (who pretended to be a quack doctor) and Macondo's first election, that Don Moscote had rigged for the Conservatives - which was closely followed by a plot to murder Don Moscote. Several months later, soldiers arrived in the town to enforce martial law - executing Dr. Noguera and taking away anything the people of Macondo could use against them. Despite this, Aureliano was able to start a revolution that destroyed the rule of the soldiers (with all of the military forces being killed while Don Moscote and his family were spared). In the aftermath of the revolution, Aureliano declared himself a Colonel and departed from Macondo to join the cause of the Liberal Party.

Chapter Six[]

Though Aureliano loses every single one of his attempted revolutions and all of the children he eventually fosters, he remains unaware of this as he leaves to join the Civil War. While leaving, Aureliano left Arcadio in charge of Macondo. This proved to be a mistake as Arcadio revealed himself to be an extremely despotic ruler - executing people for insulting him and almost killing Don Moscote before Úrsula stopped him and effectively took control of Macondo out of Arcadio's hands.

While Úrsula tried to console José Arcadio by lying to him, Amaranta and Pietro's relationship began to blossom but, while feeling vindictive, Amaranta rejected Pietro's offer of marriage. This made Pietro completely despondent and slit his own wrists after failing to win Amaranta back. Though Amaranta burned herself with hot coals, Úrsula refused to empathize with her. Meanwhile, Arcadio unknowingly fell in love with his own mother, the fortune teller Pilar Ternera. To avoid sleeping with her own son, Pilar Ternera sent a virgin named Santa Sofia de la Piedad to sleep with Arcadio. This led to Arcadio and Piedad falling in love and fathered a child together.

Around the same time, José I and Arcadio began illegally taking land from the residents of Macondo, using the fact that they were directly related to the founder of Macondo to justify this to each other. Along with this, Arcadio used public funds to build a lavish home to himself - disgusting Úrsula in the process, who soon learned that her adoptive son had fathered a child and had another on the way. This was closely followed by the arrival of a Liberal colonel named Gregorio Stevenson in disguise who brings the news that the Liberals have began to lose the Civil War. Though Colonel Stevenson told Arcadio to surrender the town to avoid civilian casualties, Arcadio refused to do this and lost every single one of his forces to the Conservative armies. Along with this, Arcadio was executed by firing squad - giving orders to name his children before being killed.

Chapter Seven[]

The Civil War ended with the Liberal forces being crushed and with Colonel Aureliano being captured and sentenced to death. Aureliano was brought back to Macondo to be executed (which was his last wish) alongside a collection of his writings and was visited by Úrsula before his execution - which was delayed by the soldiers, who feared that it would cause a riot amongst the people of Macondo. Once the firing squad was assembled, Aureliano was nearby executed but was saved by José I with a shotgun - thus bringing the events of the book beyond the first passage. The leader of the firing squad, Colonel Roque Carnicero, joins Aureliano's armies and the two Colonels restart the Liberal army. Aureliano and Carnicero then march towards the town of Riohacha to save Aureliano's friend Magifico Visbal from being executed but arrive too late. Several months later, after being rejected by the new Liberal party and being deemed a bandit, Aureliano returns to Macondo (being reunited with his old friend Colonel Gerineldo Márquez) and makes it his base.

Upon returning home, Aureliano discovers that Úrsula has adopted Santa Sofia de la Piedad and her children (including her daughter Remedios and her twin sons Arcadio and Aureliano). Around a year after Aureliano returns, José I is shot to death within his own house by an unknown assailant (or possibly by himself), with Rebeca shutting herself off from the world completely in the immediate aftermath of her husband's death. Even after being placed into a massive coffin, José I's body fills the cemetery with the smell of gunpowder. This is closely followed by Aureliano unknowingly drinks poisoned coffee (which he was cryptically warned about by Pilar Ternera) and has to be nursed back to health by Úrsula. Shortly after this, Aureliano resumes writing poetry and comes to the realization that he is only fighting due to his sense of pride. As such, he leaves the town under the control of Gerineldo and departs to meet with rebels.

Throughout his time in Macondo, Gerineldo nurses a love for Amaranta. Though Amaranta also nurses this love, she rejects Úrsula's proposal that she marry the Colonel - saying that he will be shot sooner or later. Shortly after this, the government threatens to execute Gerineldo if the rebels do not surrender Riohacha. Though this threat is not acted upon, Amaranta fears that she accidentally caused it. Despite this, she rejects Gerineldo when he asks her for her hand in marriage. Shortly after this, Aureliano sends a message to his mother telling her that her husband will die soon. As such, Úrsula tries to have José Arcadio moved from his chestnut tree but finds that he has moved back to it the next morning. While dying, José Arcadio speaks with the spirit of Prudencio Aguilar and dreams of a house with infinite rooms. One day, José Arcadio fails to leave this dream and effectively dies - with yellow flowers raining down onto Macondo in great number in the aftermath of the patriarch's death.

Chapter Eight[]

While living with Amaranta and being raised by her, Aureliano José becomes attracted to her. Amaranta is somewhat aware of these desires but only tries to keep her nephew from acting on them after they are nearly caught by Úrsula. Aureliano José sleeps with another woman while imagining her to be Amaranta and then leaves Macondo with some of his namesake's forces as they leave the town after an armistice. Shortly after this, the end of the Civil War is announced but Colonel Aureliano continues his revolutionary march through Colombia.

Soon, false news of Colonel Aureliano's death reaches Macondo. Around the same time, Visitación dies and leaves a large pile of gold underneath her bed. Úrsula thinks of sending it to Aureliano but decides not to after hearing the false news. Six months later, news of Aureliano's forces moving through Central America and Cuba reaches Macondo. Throughout this time, Macondo is ruled by Aureliano's nemesis-turned-friend, the Conservative general and somewhat benevolent ruler José Raquel Moncada while the extremely ill Father Nicanor is replaced by a veteran named Coronel. Along with this, Pietro Crespi's brother Bruno marries Don Moscote's daughter Amparo while the Segundo twins are some of the first students enrolled in Macondo's school (which has only recently been reopened as a school).

After several months of fighting alongside the rebels, Aureliano José deserts them to finally tie the knot with Amaranta. Amaranta tries to stop Aureliano José's desires by barring her door and begins thinking of Colonel Gerineldo again. Meanwhile, a young woman arrives in Macondo with a son fathered by Colonel Aureliano. This is followed by six more children, all of whom are christened after their father. This is closely followed by Aureliano José discovering the identity of his mother. Though Aureliano José was supposed to live for many more years, a false prediction causes him to get shot to death while watching a play. The captain who shoots him is then shot by everyone around him. This leads to General Moncada taking more control of Macondo's military.

While General Moncada controls the town, Colonel Aureliano and his forces arrive in Macondo as part of his revolutionary front. General Moncada is captured by his friend/adversary. Before court martialing the conservative forces, Colonel Aureliano changes several laws and undoes the fraudulent land claims made by his dead brother and nephew. Aureliano then begins trying General Moncada and his forces. Though Úrsula and several other mothers from Macondo try to stop Moncada from being executed, Aureliano sentences his friend to death. Before executing Moncada, Aureliano assures him that the execution is only part of the revolution but Moncada tells his friend that he has become worse than the regime he intends on replacing. Despite this, Aureliano agrees to give Moncada's effects to his wife after his execution.

Chapter Nine[]

As the new Civil War progresses, Colonel Gerineldo Márquez loses his connection with Colonel Aureliano and begins to think of his old friend as a stranger. While his bond with Aureliano weakens, his bond with Amaranta strengthens a little bit - as Amaranta gives him the somewhat ironic gift of a prayer book. Despite this gift, Amaranta continues to turn down Gerineldo's advances.

Shortly after this, Colonel Aureliano returns to his home town as rain falls on it. Having lost interest in fighting, he spends most of his time "sleeping" with his many concubines. While in Macondo, Aureliano calls a meeting of the rebels directly underneath him and becomes perturbed with a violent and dictatorial Native general named Téofilo Vargas. Though Aureliano does not officially order the death of Vargas, his subordinates decide to murder the general with machetes - which lets Aureliano assume control. Aureliano's first action as the leader of the rebellion is to have the man that ordered Vargas' death executed.

Having complete control over the rebellion, Aureliano feels only solitude and desolation. He is completely broken and agrees to demands from the Liberal party that completely suppress the goals they have been fighting for - thus meaning that they are only fighting for power - over the concerns of Colonel Gerineldo. When Gerineldo calls Aureliano a traitor, Colonel Aureliano has him court-marshalled. Before Gerineldo can be shot, Úrsula threatens Aureliano with death if he allows the execution to go forwards. This convinces Aureliano to free his friend and the two join forces to end the Civil War.

Two years later, Aureliano returns to Macondo to sign a peace treaty. While in Macondo, he learns of the strange mannerisms of the Segundo children and finds himself barely able to remember or think any positive thoughts about his family. As such, he burns his poetry and strips the house of any signs of himself before signing the treaty with as little fanfare as possible before shooting himself in the heart in the courtyard. Before Aureliano can die from the gunshot, he is found by Úrsula and dragged inside. Fortunately for Aureliano, the bullet passed cleanly through his chest without hitting any organs. Aureliano immediately thinks of restarting the war but is put under a close guard by the government. While working around the house under Úrsula's orders, one of these guards is driven crazy while trying to start a relationship with Remedios the Beauty and kills himself.

Chapter Ten[]

While growing up, the Segundo twins are almost impossible to tell apart. Though the Buendías try to use different-colored shirts to tell them apart once they are enrolled in school, the two soon begin to purposefully use the wrong shirts. As such, the Buendías are unable to tell which one was originally Aureliano or José Arcadio but they soon begin to mature into the archetypes of their namesakes. While Aureliano becomes invested in the sciences of Melquíades and begins having visions of the dead alchemist while reading through his ancient books, José Arcadio begins to enter into the liberal tradition before becoming a member of the clergy after witnessing a shooting. Under the guidance of Father Isabel, José Arcadio undergoes his first confession (an extremely long-winded event which ends with Isabel sleeping) but is soon perturbed by the idea that people would have less than pure thoughts for animals. Under the guidance of a zoophilic sexton, José Arcadio begins sleeping with donkeys.

Along with these animalistic affairs, José Arcadio begins raising roosters to engage in cockfights. While doing so, he learns that his twin brother has began sleeping with a woman after she mistakes him for Aureliano. As such, both of them begin sleeping with her while trying their best to keep the ruse of a singular Segundo son alive in her head until they both fall ill from a venereal disease caught from the woman. José ends his affair while Aureliano keeps sleeping with her. While doing so, he learns that she is a widow of mixed-race named Petra Cotes and learns that her presence brings about a blessing (or curse) of abundance onto his animals. Using this, he is able to amass a fortune. Though he initially spends his days trying to learn the art of making gold fish from his namesake (who seemingly only lives to make the fish), he soon stops doing this and begins flaunting his great wealth by completely covering the Buendía house with pesos. While removing the notes, Úrsula accidentally breaks a statue left behind by mysterious travelers and finds that it is filled with gold coins - which she promptly buries.

Around the same time, José Arcadio tries to build a river route into Macondo using some of his brother's money. Though he is able to do this and José Arcadio is able to drive a raft (with some French matrons traveling to Macondo on it), his vessel is the only one that travels through this route and its first voyage is its last. The French matrons set up a carnival in town and name Remedios the Beauty its queen. Úrsula is hesitant to allow this but allows Remedios to go to church with her face covered before she becomes the carnival queen. Around the same time, a foreign man enters into town and tries to seduce Remedios. Due to being somewhat mentally handicapped, Remedios remains unaware of this.

Once at the carnival, Remedios is joined by another queen from far away in Colombia and is seated besides Remedios by Aureliano. As the masked revelers party, one of them calls out "long live the Liberal party!" - causing the second queen's entourage to fire on the party - shooting some of them to death. In the chaos, José Arcadio carries Remedios away while Aureliano carries the other queen away. He learns that her name is Fernanda del Carpio and that she was to be crowned the Queen of Madagascar. The two fall in love and are married six weeks after the massacre.

Chapter Eleven[]

to be added

Gallery[]

Author's continuity[]

The town of Macondo first appeared in Gabriel García Márquez's novella Leaf Storm and is mentioned in his novella In Evil Hour.

Title	Author	Release date	Signifigance
Love in the Time of Cholera	Gabriel García Márquez	1955	A novel by the same author with similar themes
The House of the Spirits	Isabel Allende	1982	A major work in South American magical realism
The Unbearable Lightness of Being	Milan Kundera	1984	A major work within European magical realism
Midnight's Children	Salman Rushdie	1981	A major work in Indian magical realism
Blindness	José Saramago	1995	A major work in European magical realism/postmodernism
Men of Maize	Miguel Ángel Asturias	1949	A major work in Central American postmodernism
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle	Haruki Murakami	1994	A major work in Japanese magical realism
The Death of Artemio Cruz	Carlos Fuentes	1962	A major work in Latin American postmodernism
Mason & Dixon	Thomas Pynchon	1997	A postmodernist historical novel set in the wilderness of America
Ada or Ardor	Vladimir Nabokov	1969	A novel with somewhat similar themes
The Time of the Hero	Mario Vargas Llosa	1963	A major work in South American postmodernism
Hopscotch	Julio Cortázar	1963	A major work in South American postmodernism
2666	Roberto Bolaño	2004	A major work in South American postmodernism
Pedro Páramo	Juan Rulfo	1955	A major work in Latin American magical realism
Conversation in The Cathedral	Mario Vargas Llosa	1969	A major work in South American postmodernism
Ficciones	Jorge Luis Borges	1944	A major work in South American postmodernism