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100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)

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GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ was born in Aracataca, Colombia in 1928, but he has lived most of his life in Mexico and Europe. He attended the University of Bogotá and later worked as staff reporter and film critic for the Colombiannewspaper El Espectador . In addition to ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, he has also written two collections of short fiction, NO ONE WRITES TO THE COLONEL and LEAF STORM (both available in Bard editions). García Márquez currently lives with his wife and children in Barcelona. Other Avon Bard Books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez THE AUTUMN OF THE PATRIARCH IN EVIL HOUR Avon Books are available at specialquantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund raising or educa-tional use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details write or telephone the office of the Director of Special Markets, Avon Books, Dept. FP, 105 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016, 212-481-5653. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZTRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY GREGORY RABASSA AVON BOOKS – NEW YORK This book was first published in Argentina in 1967 by Editorial Sudamericana, S.A., Buenos Aires, under the title Cien Años de Soledad. Assistance for the translation of this volume was given by the Center for Inter-American Relations. AVON BOOKS A division of The Hearst Corporation 105 Madison Avenue New York, New York 10016 Englishtranslation © 1970 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Published by arrangement with Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 7483632 ISBN: 0-380-01503-X

All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information address Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.,10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022. First Avon Bard Printing: May 1971 AVON BARD TRADEMARK REG. U.S. PAT OFF. AND OTHER COUNTRIES, MARCA REGISTRADA, HECHO EN U.S.A. Printed in the U.S.A. K-R 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 for jomí garcía ascot and maría luisa elío

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE

Chapter 1 MANY YEARS LATER as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was toremember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice. At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point. Every year duringthe month of March a family of ragged gypsies would set up their tents near the village, and with a great uproar of pipes and kettledrums they would display new inventions. First they brought the magnet. A heavy gypsy with an untamed beard and sparrow hands, who introduced himself as Melquíades, put on a bold public demonstration of what he himself called the eighth wonder of the learned al-chemistsof Macedonia. He went from house to house dragging two metal ingots and everybody was amazed to see pots, pans, tongs, and braziers tumble down from their places and beams creak from the desperation of nails and screws trying to emerge, and even objects that had been lost for a long time appeared from where they had been searched for most and went dragging along in turbulent confusion behindMelquíades' magical irons. “Things have a life of their own,” the gypsy proclaimed with a harsh accent. “It's simply a matter of waking up their souls.” José Arcadio Buendía, whose

unbridled imagination always went beyond the genius of nature and even beyond miracles and magic, thought that it would be possible to make use of that useless invention to extract gold from the bowels of the earth....