One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

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Description

One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world, and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through... read more

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Summary

The story follows the lineage of the Buendia family, and its offshoots, as well as the town of Macondo, Colombia, more generally.

Cast of Characters/Important People

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Amaranta Ursula: Add a description of this character.
Úrsula Iguarán: José Arcadio Buendía's wife is the matriarch of the family, as well as the member who lives through the most generations.
José Arcadio Buendía: The patriarch of the Buendía family, José Arcadio Buendía is strong-willed, immovable by others (both physically and mentally), but has a deep interest in philosophical mysteries.
José Arcadio: José Arcadio Buendía's firstborn son
Colonel Aureliano Buendía: José Arcadio Buendía's second son and the first person to be born in Macondo, he was named after an earlier ancestor.
Remedios Moscote: the youngest daughter of the town's Conservative administrator, Don Apolinar Moscote
Amaranta: The third child of José Arcadio Buendía
Rebeca: the orphaned daughter of Ursula Iguaran's second cousins, from Manaure, the capital of La Guajira
Arcadio: José Arcadio's illegitimate son by Pilar Ternera
Aureliano José: the son of Colonel Aureliano Buendía, also by Pilar Ternera
Santa Sofía de la Piedad: a beautiful virgin girl and the daughter of a shopkeeper
17 Aurelianos: Colonel Aureliano Buendía's sons
Remedios the Beauty: Arcadio and Santa Sofía's first child, and she inherits her mother's beauty. It is said she's the most beautiful woman ever seen in Macondo
José Arcadio Segundo: the twin brother of Aureliano Segundo, the children of Arcadio and Santa Sofía
Aureliano Segundo: the more boisterous and impulsive
Fernanda del Carpio: the only major character (except for Rebeca and the First generation) that does not originate in Macondo
Renata Remedios (Meme): the second child and first daughter of Fernanda and Aureliano Segundo.
José Arcadio (II): raised by Úrsula, who intends for him to become the Pope.
Amaranta Úrsula: the third child of Fernanda and Aureliano
Aureliano Babilonia (Aureliano II): the illegitimate child of Meme.
Aureliano (III): The child of Aureliano and his aunt, Amaranta Úrsula.
Melquíades: one of a troop of Gypsies who would visit Macondo every year in March
Pilar Ternera: a local woman
Pietro Crespi: a very handsome and polite Italian musician
Petra Cotes: a dark-skinned woman with gold-brown eyes similar to those of a panther
Mr. Herbert and Mr. Brown: people
Mauricio Babilonia: a brutally honest, generous and handsome mechanic for the banana company
Gastón: an aviator and an adventurer
Gabriel García Márquez: the great-great-grandson of Colonel Gerineldo Márquez

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Memorable Quotes

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“The only difference today between Liberals and Conservatives is that the Liberals go to mass at five o'clock and the Conservatives at eight.”
Colonel Aureliano Buendia
“The world must be all fucked up when men travel first class and literature goes as freight.”
Catalan bookstore owner in Macondo
“O Coronel Aureliano Buendía mandou dizer, palavra por palavra, que esperava com verdadeira ansiedade aquela tardia mas merecida ocasião de lhe dar um tiro, não para cobrar as arbitrariedades e anacronismos de seu regime, mas por faltar com o respeito a um velho que não fazia mal a ninguém. Foi tal a veemência com que pronunciou a ameaça, que o Presidente da República cancelou a viagem na última hora.”
Coronel Aureliano Buendía offering his host's courtesy to the President.
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Setting & Important Places

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Organizations

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First Sentence

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

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Glossary

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Errata

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Series

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Authors & Contributors

Gabriel García Márquez (Author)

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First Edition

Original Language: Spanish
Publisher: Harper and Row (USA) & Jonathan Cape (UK)
Country: Colombia
Publication Date: 1967 (translation 25 June 1970)
ISBN: 0-224-61853-9
Page Count: 432