Lady Barbara

1. SUMMARY

The novel tells how Santos Luzardo returned to the family estate that was
called Altamira, after having lived many years in Caracas, where I studied,
graduating as a lawyer and does not feel any interest in the property that's why for a long time has
there have been trusted administrators, but the situation has changed since it appeared in
the region, Doña Bárbara, a woman who always wants to have power and wants to take ownership
legally of estates like La Barquereña, parts of Altamira, and the livestock.
He claims to decide whether to sell Altamira, but his mother has died and he intends to
emigrate from the country. As a result, he travels to San Fernando and then to Altamira, to
make a definitive decision about the farm.
As for Doña Bárbara, it is said that when she was young, she was the cook of a canoe.
There, on the last journey of this crew, Asdrúbal met with tragedy.
The girl falls in love, the boy becomes interested in her, but the captain has others.
projects for Barbara (to rape her and sell her to an old sadist), have the boy killed;
but the crew that has the same intentions as the captain mutinies, kills the
captain and they rape Bárbara. The canoe pilot, Eustaquio, an old Baniba Indian, from the
same tribe as the girl's mother, kills the rest of the crew and takes away
aBárbaraa living in the jungle for some time. She, with the indigenous people, learns about herbs
and witchcraft, but her beauty disturbs the peace of the community, that's why she has to distance herself.

Traveling with Eustaquio, he meets Lorenzo Barquero, the heir of La Barquereña and
They start a relationship: Lorenzo is in love with her, but she is already the 'devourer of
men" who does not agree to marry him because she does not accept that any man dominates her.
They have a daughter, Marisela, and this worsens the situation; with her new lover, the
Colonel Apolinar plans a plot to take over La Barquereña, and he succeeds and runs.
aLorenzocon the little daughter of the estate. ConApolinar learns about legal disputes and
these will gradually allow them to take over many lands, no longer with the help of
colonel, mysteriously disappeared.
Santos arrives in Altamira, where there are still some workers loyal to his family who are waiting for him.

take control of the situation by firing the butler Balbino Paiba who is the lover
Doña Bárbara. Santos does not hide his intentions to sell the estate, but in a little
time conquers life in the plain once again: he intends to fix the situations
irregularities that have arisen with their neighbors, particularly with Mrs. Bárbara and Mister
Dangerous to help cousin Lorenzo, who lives in miserable conditions with the
daughter Marisela who is practically a savage.
Thus begins a series of disputes to put up a fence, to retrieve the cattle that passes.
from one estate to another, etc. Mrs. Barbara has a seemingly friendly attitude and
after having met Santos, she starts falling in love with him; she thought she could win him over to have him.

in his power like the other lovers of her life, but Santos is immune to her spells, he does not
he fears her and does not desire her.

Marisela has also fallen in love with Santos; she and her father have agreed to go live.
In Altamira. Santos seeks for Lorenzo to stop drinking and to become that man again.
example, who was in youth and with Marisela, rustic quinceañera, is determined to work
educational: she will have to practice reading, writing, good manners, learning to speak
correctly and to take care of her appearance. So much attention makes her fall in love, but Marisela knows

that this is an impossible love. Santo would like to distance her by sending her to some aunts or to

studying in Caracas, is not interested in her, sometimes thinks that she has the cruel soul of
his mother, but at the same time enjoys her company, until the situation
Doña Bárbara prepares a spell for Santos and when Marisela finds out, she runs.
to confront her; it is the first time that mother and daughter are close since the mother abandoned her,
but the fight is interrupted by Santos. He scolds Marisela for believing in
witchcraft and she falls into depression, suddenly understands the weight of being the daughter of such a woman,

known as the Dañera, and resolves to return with her father to their ranch. Indeed,
Taking advantage of Santos' absence, Marisela returns to live in her old house, of course.
that is no longer accustomed to that wild life, and knows that she runs the risk of Mister
Danger forces him to be her lover, as she has threatened many times; he then decides to ask
money to his mother, to finally distance himself from all of them, also seeking attention
doctor for father and Mrs. Bárbara accepts, happy to be freed from the rival. In the days of the
fight between mother and daughter, there is an event that changes Santos' attitude: they find
one of his pawns is dead. In reality, there were two pawns, but they will never get the other one,
probably devoured by crocodiles; the two workers were in charge of the transfer of a
precious shipment of feathers to be traded in San Fernando. For Ño
Pernalete, the civil chief, this has been a natural death, the one that enrages Santos.
decide to abandon the legal avenues, according to justice that she has adhered to until now. Mrs.
Bárbara is indecisive, between helping him to make a good impression or following her desires.
those pawns who want revenge because Santos has ordered the imprisonment of two of them and, in the end
let luck decide. There is a meeting between Santos and the Brujeador, surely a
trap, but it is the Sorcerer who dies. Santos will believe he is a murderer and this will lead him to a

serious crisis of conscience: all his struggle against the barbarism and savagery of that flat land
it has been useless, he has also adapted, dulled, instead of achieving the arrival of
progress in those lands. When on that same day, Mariselay and Santos meet again,
because Lorenzo had just died the day before leaving definitively for San Fernando,
she manages to argue that Santos is not the murderer and with that, she restores hope to him,
trust and he opens up to this love.
Lady Bárbara, with the death of the Sorcerer, decides to also deliver Balbino Paibaque.
true author of the two homicides and the theft of the pens: will have him killed in a
settlement of accounts and will arrange for it to be legally recognized as the responsible party of the

death of the Witcher. His great hope is to conquer Saints with these gestures, but, almost
it drives crazy seeing Santos and Marisela together again in Altamira: she is willing to kill the
Daughter, when suddenly, she reflects. Seeing Marisela up close, she sees herself reflected in her at that

age, when she fell in love with Asdrúbal and this memory softens her heart and allows her a
first maternal feeling.
He will organize all his affairs, naming as heir the daughter he finally recognizes.
it will disappear into nothing: some say he drowned in the swamp but it will also circulate
story about navigating in a bongo on the river.

Civilization advances, in the wild territory and Mister Danger also leaves because his
the era has ended. The name of the estate El Miedo disappears, because with the marriage
deMariselaconSantos everything becomes Altamira again

GENRE
 This work belongs to the genre of regionalist novel, because it has all the
characteristics of this style, such as telling things about a region of the country, is
written in prose, narrates and describes the situations of the characters, has a beginning, middle, and end.

The outcome is also extensive and some of its events are fictional.

Rómulo Gallegos

Rómulo Gallegos was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1884. He completed his high school studies in
the Sucre College of which he would later become deputy director.

He begins his studies in Law at the University of Venezuela, but the need for
making a living takes him away from her. He founded a newspaper, 'La Alborada', around 1910, and there he writes

a series of articles on education, politics, and literature.

In 1913, he formally began his literary career with a collection of stories titled The
adventurers. In 1920 he published his first novel The Last Solar (now known by the title of
Reinaldo Solar). From this date, Rómulo Gallegos becomes one of the figures
most representative of the Venezuelan intellectual sector.

In 1931 he was appointed senator for the State of Apure, a position he resigned from for reasons

politics and exiles in the United States of America. In 1936 he returns to Venezuela and is
appointed Minister of Education, a position he leaves shortly after. He tries his luck as
film author and produces a movie: Juan de la Calle. In 1947 he arrives at the Presidency.
of the Republic, but he is removed the following year by a military movement led by
Pérez Jiménez. When he falls, in 1958, he returns to his homeland being received with all the
honors. Later, he receives the National Literature Award and is elected as a member of the
Academy of the Language. Passed away in his hometown in 1969.

Obras principales.Los aventureros (cuentos, 1913); Reinaldo Solar (1920, novela); Doña
Bárbara (1929, novela); Cantaclaro (novela, 1934); Canaima (novela, 1935); La brizna de paja
in the wind (novel, 1952).
 4. CHAPTERS: The prose novel consists of three parts, 41 chapters, 181 pages.
First part, 13 chapters, up to page 72; second part, 13 chapters, up to page
128; third part, 15 chapters up to page 181.
The internal structure consists of:

Chapter I: The journey in bongo, introducing the protagonist Santos, already stalked by the man
of trust of Doña Bárbara and presenting the plains environment.
Chapters II and III: the background of the life of Santos Luzardo and Doña Bárbara
respectively.
The rest of the first part up to chapter XI of the second part, (page 24 to page
123) represent the development of the novel: Santos' decision to legally fix everything.
the possible, the gradual falling in love of Mrs. Bárbara, and personal growth of
Marisela, with her infatuation.
Chapter XIII of the second part "The Damager and her shadow": the fact that Doña Bárbara
I ordered a witchcraft for Santos and the murder of two laborers from Altamira constitute the
central knot of the story.
The third part up to chapter X: the difficult decisions.
Marisela leaves Altamira and asks her mother for money to distance herself permanently.

Santos decides that the time of legality is over, it is time to apply the law of the plains and
to take revenge

Doña Bárbara struggles with contradictory feelings regarding Santos: romantic passion
and desires of revenge

From chapter XI of the third part 'Light in the Cave' until the end: the conclusion or
the dots over the i's
Lorenzo dies.

Santos and Marisela reunite and she deduces that he is not the killer of the Brujeador;
Doña Bárbara, with homicidal feelings because she has not managed to conquer Santos, when
She sees them together, it will change definitely. She will abandon everything, she will disappear mysteriously,

probably traveling through the rivers as in his youth, leaving the daughter as heir of
The Fear

The novel is set in the Apure plains in the second decade of the 20th century; it abounds
the descriptions of this natural environment and the customs and beliefs that are typically from the plains;

In the dialogues of simple people like Marisela and Juan Primito, the speech of this is represented.
rural population, uneducated and in the other dialogues, it generally reflects the way of speaking
llanero with his recurring proverbs or peculiar tales like that of "putting the dots"
about lashaches”. A distance of almost a century still being a good portrait of what is essential of
flat-sweet apple.

5. CHARACTERS

MAIN

Doña Bárbara: she is arbitrary, violent, cunning, and capricious. Her behavior is a reaction.
the trauma she suffered in childhood, a victim of rape.

Santos Luzardo: he is a good man from the plains but trained as a lawyer in the city,
graduate of the Central University of Venezuela.

SECONDARY

Marisela: daughter of Doña Bárbara and Lorenzo Barquero. She was abandoned by her mother.
thanks to her effort and the support of Santos Luzardo, she becomes a renewed, beautiful woman,
tender and quick to learn, leaving behind her image of 'wild'.

Lorenzo Barquero: an intelligent and prepared man who is forced to return to the plains,
where their will is destroyed by misfortune and vice.
Guillermo Danger: HE IS the Accomplice of Doña Bárbara.

Don Pernalete and 'Mujiquita': they represent the political incompetence of the country and the state

depressing of society.

Balbino Paiba and Melquiades Gamarra: help Doña Bárbara in her revenge against those who
they were harmed in the past.

OTHER LESS IMPORTANT CHARACTERS ARE

Melesio and his granddaughters, Remigio, Jesús, José Luzardo, Félix Luzardo, Asunción

Panchita, Sebastián Barquero, Evaristo Luzardo, Eustaquio, Asdrúbal, Taita, Asdrúbal,

6. NARRATOR: the narrator of the work is omniscient and narrates the events in third person.

person, the narrator makes many descriptions and knows everything they want and
the characters think

7. TIME AND SPACE

In the work Doña Bárbara, the exact date is not given, but everything seems to happen in the
year 1911.

SPACE. The events take place in the plains of the state of Apure, near Arauca, as
also in the Altamira estate and its surroundings.

Bibliography
DOÑA BARBARA
Squirrel; Caracas. Printed in Colombia. pages. 92