Felisberto Hernández
Felisberto Hernández was a Uruguayan short-story writer, born in 1902, who is recognized as a precursor of the Magical Realism literary movement. Despite facing a challenging upbringing and limited formal education, he carved out a unique path as a concert pianist before turning to writing. Hernández is often compared to notable authors such as Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, and his work has significantly influenced prominent writers like Gabriel García Marquez. His storytelling is characterized by the personification of inanimate objects and the exploration of complex psychological states, often featuring absurd and multifaceted central characters.
Although his early works received little attention, Hernández gained recognition in the mid-20th century, particularly with the publication of "Nadie encendía las lámparas" in 1947 and later collections like "La casa inundada" and "Tierras de la memoria." His prose is marked by careful craftsmanship, blending elements of music and film with imaginative narratives. One of his most acclaimed stories, "Las hortensias," delves into the mind of a man with obsessive tendencies. Hernández's legacy endures, and his stories continue to captivate readers with their mystery and innovation. He passed away in 1964 in his hometown of Montevideo.
On this Page
Felisberto Hernández
- Born: October 20, 1902
- Birthplace: Montevideo, Uruguay
- Died: January 13, 1964
- Place of death: Montevideo, Uruguay
Biography
Felisberto Hernández, a remarkably original short-story writer, is considered a precursor of the literary school known as Magical Realism. Sometimes described as a fabulist, he often is compared to Jorge Luis Borge and Italo Calvino and is acknowledged as a major influence by Gabriel García Marquez. His writing is so experimental and challenging that his fans tend to be other writers, most notably the better-known experimental authors Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, and Severo Sarduy. In many respects, however, Hernández’s work is more innovative than that of his acolytes.
Hernández was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1902. Born into poverty, he attended school erratically and had limited formal education, but he taught himself through reading and studied piano with a blind but talented instructor. His first career was as a concert pianist, playing recitals, accompanying silent movies, and working for the Uruguayan government verifying copyright fees for tangos performed on the radio.
Hernández was an avid reader, familiar with and very influenced by Marcel Proust and Sigmund Freud. He published his first collection of stories in 1925, to little acknowledgment, and published three more books by 1931, publishing sporadically after that in magazines and almanacs. It would be more than fifteen years before he gained significant recognition for the strange tales in Nadie encendía las lámparas, published in 1947.
His renown increased with the publication of a subsequent collection of stories, La casa inundada: Cuentos (1960), and a third collection, Tierras de la memoria (1965; Lands of Memory, 2002). A Mexican edition of his complete works, Obras completas de Felisberto Hernádez, appeared in 1983. English translations of his work were unavailable until the 1993 collection Piano Stories, which contains many of his most famous stories, including “The Balcony,” “The Flooded House,” and “Except Julia,” as well as an experimental autobiography, The New House, and an introduction by Calvino.
The identifying characteristic of Hernández’s stories is the personification of inanimate objects and the presence of an absurd, often deranged, central character. One innovation in his stories was the representation of this single central character by means of several different but anonymous characters—several characters who are in fact all of the different facets, personalities, or perspectives of the same person. The stories represent perverse or obsessive behaviors, but are so beautifully rendered that their effect is never repugnant but always mysterious, compelling, and imaginative. His prose style is deliberate and carefully wrought, often containing images from music and the films he saw while working in theaters as a younger man. His most respected story is “Las hortensias,” the poignant exploration into the deranged mind of a man who creates pornographic scenes with dolls.
Hernández was married four times; rumor has it that one of his wives was a Russian spy. He died in Montevideo in 1964.