Horacio Quiroga's The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories 🐔 Book Review and Analysis

A reflection on the short stories of Horacio Quiroga (1878-1937), the great Uruguayan storyteller who revolutionized the genre in Latin America. Quiroga was my first favorite author, after I read some stories from his famous collection Cuentos de la selva (Tales of the Jungle) in the fourth grade. In the video I discuss the main themes and style of Quiroga's fiction, with a focus on the stories included in the collection The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories (La gallina degollada y otros cuentos), selected and translated by Margaret Sayers Peden and published by the University of Texas Press in 1976. I also show the collections Cuentos de amor, de locura y de muerte (Tales of Love, Madness, and Death, originally published in 1917), published by Penguin in 1997, and Cuentos escogidos (Selected Tales), published by Alfaguara in 2008, with a prologue by Liliana Heker.

Contents:
00:00 – Horacio Quiroga: an author who changed my life
01:38 – A tough life
02:55 – Quiroga's place in Latin American literature
04:29 – Themes, main setting, and influences (and a Borges Connection)
08:52 – Approach
10:25 – The Feather Pillow (El almohadón de plumas)
13:08 – Sunstroke (La insolación)
14:25 – The Pursued (Los perseguidos)
15:58 – The Decapitated Chicken (La gallina degollada)
18:33 – Drifting (A la deriva)
19:32 – A Slap in the Face (Una bofetada)
20:35 – In the Middle of the Night (En la noche)
21:13 – Juan Darién
22:23 – The Dead Man (El hombre muerto)
23:09 – Anaconda
24:31 – The Incense Tree Roof (El techo de incienso)
25:50 – The Son (El hijo)
27:21 – Bottom line