Macabre brilliance, 12 Aug 2008
To understand Quiroga's work, it is worth looking at his CV:
Born in Salto, Uruguay, Quiroga had an incredibly miserable and unhappy life. His father, was killed in an accidental shooting when Quiroga was very young. Then his stepfather committed suicide in 1900. Subsequently, in 1902, Quiroga killed his best friend in a shooting accident. After a brief stay in Paris, He returned to South America, where he taught in several Argentine schools. After touring the wilds of Argentina as a photographer, he settled in Chaco Province in 1904, where he attempted to grow cotton. His attempt failed, and he returned to teaching in Buenos Aires. There married one of his pupils, Ana María Cires, in 1909. They had two children, a son, Darío, and a daughter, Eglé. Quiroga took the post of registration in the San Ignacio district of Misiones. He was joined by his wife and children, but after six unhappy years, Ana María committed suicide by poisoning herself. He then returned to Buenos Aires, where he worked in the consulate of his native country for the next nine years. Quiroga returned to San Ignacio in 1925. In 1927, he married a friend of his daughter's, María Elena Bravo. The marriage ultimately failed. Two years before his death, Quiroga was awarded an honorary consulship by the country of his birth. Quiroga killed himself by ingesting cyanide shortly after he learned that he had prostate cancer. Ultimately, both of Quiroga's children, Darío and Eglé, committed suicide as well.
As to his short stories, they are nothing short of brilliant: macabre and dark, but also hugely ironic and at times humourous. For me, Quiroga sits alongside the greatest short story tellers and shares much in style with Poe, Conrad, Kipling and Saki.


Worthwhile, 17 Nov 2007
Quiroga (1878-1937) is considered to be one of the finest short-story writers Latin America has produced, and among the writers there with whom the modern short story begins. This anthology was published in 1976 and contains 12 of his best pieces written between 1907 and 1935. It was the first collection in English covering the span of his career.

Quiroga is known for his economy of style and power of dramatic focus, rapid narrative, and dark view of mankind, often showing people motivated by greed, fear, anger, stupidity or a desire for revenge. Most of the stories in this collection involved violence, death, madness or horror. There were also several animal tales featuring dogs and snakes that talked. Many of the pieces were set in the torrid jungle of the Misiones district of northeastern Argentina, and showed man's inability to control nature and fate. Two were set in the city. Just one story in the collection had a conventional hero and happy outcome: a courageous woman rowed for hours against a raging flood to get help for a companion.

For me, the most interesting piece was "The Pursued," an early story containing the narrator's description of the gradual descent into madness of his intellectual acquaintance in the city. The interest came from the gripping description of the descent, and the fact that the narrator's comments suggested that he too was insane and contributed to the other's disintegration. Other good stories included the title piece, which showed children's terrifying powers of imitation in a way that won't soon be forgotten, and "The Dead Man" and "Drifting," about the rage to live against approaching death. The illustrations commissioned for the edition of the book I read were also well done and contributed to the stories' atmosphere.

Some of the pieces had some affinities with magic realism, if that means the use merely of the bizarre or supernatural. His works weren't magic realism in the sense of use of nonlinear, parallel plots, unusual shifts in time and space, creation of a mythical place, or heavy borrowing from myth, legend and dream. The stories included in the collection were very linear in narrative and didn't distort reality in intensifying it. His work may be related to magic realism in the same distant way as an author like Ambrose Bierce or many writers of horror stories are related to it.

A minor criticism of this anthology might be that the atmosphere of virtually unrelieved doom and darkness got a bit oppressive after awhile. I would've liked to read additional stories by this author in this short, 160-page collection to see whether he was capable of a greater range. Within the fictional territory included in this short book, he was powerful. I'd agree with other readers that his writing is important for readers interested in Latin American fiction, particularly the short story.

Another collection in English of the writer's work is The Exiles and Other Stories, produced in 1987 by the same publisher. It focuses more on the atmosphere of the Misiones jungle and the various characters inhabiting it, and less on the intense atmosphere of dread, the supernatural and the bizarre.

"The best writer in Latin America -- bar none!!", 10 Jan 1999
Horacio Quiroga wrote like no other. His use of words is phenomenal, and the way he describes the things and people and places in his stories is almost like being there. You can actually SEE the action develop and unfold before your eyes. He has the ability to literally write the reader into his stories. It gives me the impression of being one of the characters the action happens to during the story. After reading these, the stories are not easily forgotten. A classic for all time.

Macabre brilliance, 12 Aug 2008
To understand Quiroga's work, it is worth looking at his CV:
Born in Salto, Uruguay, Quiroga had an incredibly miserable and unhappy life. His father, was killed in an accidental shooting when Quiroga was very young. Then his stepfather committed suicide in 1900. Subsequently, in 1902, Quiroga killed his best friend in a shooting accident. After a brief stay in Paris, He returned to South America, where he taught in several Argentine schools. After touring the wilds of Argentina as a photographer, he settled in Chaco Province in 1904, where he attempted to grow cotton. His attempt failed, and he returned to teaching in Buenos Aires. There married one of his pupils, Ana María Cires, in 1909. They had two children, a son, Darío, and a daughter, Eglé. Quiroga took the post of registration in the San Ignacio district of Misiones. He was joined by his wife and children, but after six unhappy years, Ana María committed suicide by poisoning herself. He then returned to Buenos Aires, where he worked in the consulate of his native country for the next nine years. Quiroga returned to San Ignacio in 1925. In 1927, he married a friend of his daughter's, María Elena Bravo. The marriage ultimately failed. Two years before his death, Quiroga was awarded an honorary consulship by the country of his birth. Quiroga killed himself by ingesting cyanide shortly after he learned that he had prostate cancer. Ultimately, both of Quiroga's children, Darío and Eglé, committed suicide as well.
As to his short stories, they are nothing short of brilliant: macabre and dark, but also hugely ironic and at times humourous. For me, Quiroga sits alongside the greatest short story tellers and shares much in style with Poe, Conrad, Kipling and Saki.


Worthwhile, 17 Nov 2007
Quiroga (1878-1937) is considered to be one of the finest short-story writers Latin America has produced, and among the writers there with whom the modern short story begins. This anthology was published in 1976 and contains 12 of his best pieces written between 1907 and 1935. It was the first collection in English covering the span of his career.

Quiroga is known for his economy of style and power of dramatic focus, rapid narrative, and dark view of mankind, often showing people motivated by greed, fear, anger, stupidity or a desire for revenge. Most of the stories in this collection involved violence, death, madness or horror. There were also several animal tales featuring dogs and snakes that talked. Many of the pieces were set in the torrid jungle of the Misiones district of northeastern Argentina, and showed man's inability to control nature and fate. Two were set in the city. Just one story in the collection had a conventional hero and happy outcome: a courageous woman rowed for hours against a raging flood to get help for a companion.

For me, the most interesting piece was "The Pursued," an early story containing the narrator's description of the gradual descent into madness of his intellectual acquaintance in the city. The interest came from the gripping description of the descent, and the fact that the narrator's comments suggested that he too was insane and contributed to the other's disintegration. Other good stories included the title piece, which showed children's terrifying powers of imitation in a way that won't soon be forgotten, and "The Dead Man" and "Drifting," about the rage to live against approaching death. The illustrations commissioned for the edition of the book I read were also well done and contributed to the stories' atmosphere.

Some of the pieces had some affinities with magic realism, if that means the use merely of the bizarre or supernatural. His works weren't magic realism in the sense of use of nonlinear, parallel plots, unusual shifts in time and space, creation of a mythical place, or heavy borrowing from myth, legend and dream. The stories included in the collection were very linear in narrative and didn't distort reality in intensifying it. His work may be related to magic realism in the same distant way as an author like Ambrose Bierce or many writers of horror stories are related to it.

A minor criticism of this anthology might be that the atmosphere of virtually unrelieved doom and darkness got a bit oppressive after awhile. I would've liked to read additional stories by this author in this short, 160-page collection to see whether he was capable of a greater range. Within the fictional territory included in this short book, he was powerful. I'd agree with other readers that his writing is important for readers interested in Latin American fiction, particularly the short story.

Another collection in English of the writer's work is The Exiles and Other Stories, produced in 1987 by the same publisher. It focuses more on the atmosphere of the Misiones jungle and the various characters inhabiting it, and less on the intense atmosphere of dread, the supernatural and the bizarre.

"The best writer in Latin America -- bar none!!", 10 Jan 1999
Horacio Quiroga wrote like no other. His use of words is phenomenal, and the way he describes the things and people and places in his stories is almost like being there. You can actually SEE the action develop and unfold before your eyes. He has the ability to literally write the reader into his stories. It gives me the impression of being one of the characters the action happens to during the story. After reading these, the stories are not easily forgotten. A classic for all time.

One more "unknown" great., 02 Sep 2007
A great writer who led a tortured life. All of his work - mainly short stories - is worth seeking out and reading. "Anaconda and other stories" etc.

Superb fantastic fiction writing, 05 Jun 1999
Es un autor increible. Es como puedo ver claramente en cada de sus cuentos. Un escritor muy importante de la ficcion fantastica. Tiene que leer tambien sus libro "Anaconda y "Cuentos de la Selva." Ambos son libros escrito en la misma manera.