The Seven Madmen (Extraordinary Classic)

If great means anything at all, then Arlt is surely a great writer... He is Latin America's first truly urban novelist...This is the power which inspired literature possesses (Martin Seymour-Smith ?The Seven Madmen...has long been compared with the writings of Dostoevsky. Yet any reader today would observe that the striking aspect of Arlt?s book is not so much that it looks back to earlier European models but that it casts a long shadow forward over the subsequent 50 years? Guardian)

First published in 1929, The Seven Madmen perfectly captures the conflict of Argentine society, at a crucial moment in its history. Arlt's exploration of the still mysterious city of Buenos Aires, its street slang, crowded tenements, crazy juxtapositions, and anguish are at the core of this novel. In this seething, hostile city, Erdosain wanders the streets, trying to decipher the teeming life going on behind dark doors. He searches, literarally, for his soul that is causing him so much pain, wondering what it might look like. This translation of Arlt's masterpiece makes available to English speaking audiences the work of a writer who is the founder of the contemporary Latin American novel and a giant of 20th century literature.