Tyrant Banderas (New York Review Books Classics), by Ramon del calle-inclan

The first great twentieth-century novel of dictatorship, and the avowed inspiration for Garca MrquezsThe Autumn of the Patriarchand Roa BastossI, the Supreme,Tyrant Banderasis a dark and dazzling portrayal of a mythical Latin American republic in the grip of a monster. Ramn del Valle-Incln, one of the masters of Spanish modernism, combines the splintered points of view of a cubist painting with the campy excesses of 19th-century serial fiction to paint an astonishing picture of a ruthless tyrant facing armed revolt.

It is the Day of the Dead, and revolution has broken out, creating mayhem from Baby Roachs Cathouse to the Harris Circus to the deep jungle of Tico Maip. Tyrant Banderas steps forth, assuring all that he is in favor of freedom of assembly and democratic opposition. Meanwhile, his secret police lock up, torture, and execute students and Indian peasants in a sinister castle by the sea where even the sharks have tired of a diet of revolutionary flesh. Then the opposition strikes back. They besiege the dictators citadel, hoping to bring justice to a downtrodden, starving populace.

Peter Bushs new translation of Valle-Inclns seminal novel, the first into English since 1929, reveals a writer whose tragic sense of humor is as memorably grotesque and disturbing as Goyas in hisThe Disasters of War.