Pérez-Reverte, Arturo 1951–

views updated

Pérez-Reverte, Arturo 1951–

(Arturo Perez-Reverte)

PERSONAL:

Born November 24, 1951, in Cartagena, Spain. Hobbies and other interests: Sailing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Spain.

CAREER:

Journalist and author. War correspondent in African countries for the Pueblo; war correspondent for Spanish national television.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Goya Prize for best script adaptation, 1992, for El maestro de esgrima; Grand Prix de literatura policiaca de Francia, 1993, for Le Club Dumas; Prize Asturias de periodismo, 1993, for coverage of war in Yugoslavia; Premio Ondas, 1993; Swedish Academy Prize for best foreign translation, 1994, for The Table of Flandes; Premio Palle Rosenkranz, 1994, Academia Criminologica de Dinamarca, for El club Dumas; Elle readers' prize, 1995, for The Skin of the Drum; Jean Monnet Prize for European literature, 1997, for La pel del tambor; Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, 1998; Adalid de la Libertad, 1999; Mediterranean Prize for best foreign work published in France, 2001; Medalla de la Academia de Marina Francesa, 2002; named member of the Spanish Royal Academy, 2003; honorary degree, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, 2004; Prize Gonzalez-ruano de periodismo, 2004; Joaquin Romero Murube Prize, 2004; Gran Cruz del Merito Naval, 2005; Medalla de oro de San Telmo, Fundacion Letras del mar, 2006.

WRITINGS:

El húsar, Akal (Madrid, Spain), 1986, reprinted, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2004.

El maestro de esgrima, Mondadori (Madrid, Spain), 1988, translation by Margaret Jull Costa published as The Fencing Master, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY), 1999.

La tabla de Flandes, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1990, translation by Margaret Jull Costa published as The Flanders Panel, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY), 1994.

El club Dumas, Santillana (Madrid, Spain), 1993, translation by Sonia Soto published as The Club Dumas, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY), 1996.

La sombra del águila, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1993, new edition, Editorial Castalia (Madrid, Spain), 1999.

Territorio comanche: un relato, Ollero & Ramos (Madrid, Spain), 1994.

La piel del tambor (title means "The Skin of the Drum"), Santillana (Madrid, Spain), 1995, translation by Sonia Soto published as The Seville Communion, Harcourt Brace (New York, NY), 1998.

Los héroes cansados (collection), introduction by Santos Sanz Villanueva, Espasa Calpe (Madrid, Spain), 1995.

Obra breve (title means "Short Works"), Santillana (Madrid, Spain), 1995.

Patente de corso: 1993-1998, introduction and selection by José Luis Martín Nogales, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1998.

La Carta Esférica, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2000, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden published as The Nautical Chart, Harcourt (New York, NY), 2001.

Con animo de offender, 1998-2001, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2001.

La reina del sur, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2002, translation by Andrew Hurley published as The Queen of the South, Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

El Caballero Del Jubón Amarillo, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2003.

Cabo Trafalgar: Un Relato Naval, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2004.

No Me Cogeréis Vivo (2001-2005), Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2005.

El Pintor De Batallas, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2006, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden published as The Painter of Battles, Random House (New York, NY), 2008.

Author of film adaptation of El Maestro de Esgrima,

"ADVENTURES OF CAPITÁN ALATRISTE" SERIES

El Capitán Alatriste, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1996, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden published as Captain Alatriste, Putnam (New York, NY), 2005.

Limpieza de sangre, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1997, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden published as Purity of Blood, G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York, NY), 2006.

El sol de Breda, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 1998, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden published as The Sun over Breda, G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York, NY), 2007.

El oro del rey, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2000.

Corsarios De Levante, Alfaguara (Madrid, Spain), 2006.

ADAPTATIONS:

The Club Dumas was adapted for film as The Ninth Door, directed by Roman Polanski, 1999; La Capitán Alatriste was filmed in Spain and released in 2006 as Alatriste.

SIDELIGHTS:

Arturo Pérez-Reverte first established himself as a war correspondent and television personality in Spain, but his intelligence and literary acumen have allowed him to become a best-selling author in his native country and around the world. His novels have been translated into some nineteen languages and have sold more than three million copies, and several of his literary thrillers have been translated into English. While he is perhaps best known for his series about a sixteenth-century swordsman, Captain Alatriste, he has also written several other novels, some with contemporary settings, that are noted both for their suspenseful plotlines and the depth with which they explore underlying issues.

El maestro de esgrima, first released in 1988, was translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa as The Fencing Master and published in 1999. The tale is set in Madrid in the year 1868, where the fencing master Don Jaime Astarloa teaches his skill to young noblemen. He is approached by the beautiful Adela de Otero and offered a large sum of money to teach her his difficult secret sword thrust. He initially declines but her persistence outlasts his resolve. She soon improves on her already excellent swordmanship, and when a wealthy client who has taken Adela for his own is killed by Don Jaime's famous technique, she becomes a suspect. Barbara Hoffert of Library Journal called the novel "a fine tale of political intrigue with a lot of fencing lore deftly mixed in." A Publishers Weekly contributor commended Pérez-Reverte for his "lushly atmospheric suspense" and "spellbinding" prose that combines fencing, Spanish politics, and "the eternal lure of the femme fatale." Brad Hooper, writing in Booklist explained that Don Jaime finally learns "what purpose his involuntary participation served—and this leads to a walloping ending."

The Flanders Panel, published in 1994, is a translation of Pérez-Reverte's 1990 novel La tabla de Flandes. It belongs to the genre of postmodern mysteries made popular by Italian author Umberto Eco, but in the opinion of Times Literary Supplement contributor Michael Eaude, "Pérez-Reverte's plotting is much tighter and his narrative is more exciting." The novel's heroine, Julia, is an art restorer who discovers a murder mystery hidden in a medieval painting of a chess game. The game's moves are continued in the form of messages and events in Julia's life amid the Madrid art world; gradually, she realizes that she has become a target in the centuries-old mystery.

Discussing the book with reservations about its "undistinguished" prose style and stereotyped characters, Eaude maintained that "The Flanders Panel is never boring." The critic commended the way Pérez-Reverte works background material, including chess moves, into the plot, and noted "a number of shocking twists." "Above all," Eaude concluded, "Pérez-Reverte makes use of a vivid imagination." Plaudits also came from a reviewer for the London Observer, who called the novel a "delightfully absorbing confection" and "ingenious hocus-pocus from start to finish." A Publishers Weekly contributor characterized the novel as "uneven but intriguing." That reviewer, like Eaude, faulted the characters as underdeveloped and also felt that the mystery was solved unconvincingly and conventionally. The reviewer responded most favorably to Pérez-Reverte's use of chess metaphors for human actions and to Julia's analyses of the painting, termed "clever and quite suspenseful."

One of Pérez-Reverte's most acclaimed novels is El club Dumas which was translated into English as The Club Dumas. In this book, the author's proclivity for multi-layered wit is given full play. The novel revolves around a rare-book scout, Lucas Corso, who is asked to find the last two of the three existing copies of the Renaissance work The Book of the Nine Doors to the Kingdom of Shadows, in which each door is represented by an illustration that is crucial to Pérez-Reverte's plot. The murder of the owner of one copy in Portugal, and the theft of that volume's illustrations lead Corso and Irene Adler, an intriguing young woman who has been following him, to Paris in search of the third copy. As a favor to a bookseller friend, Corso has also taken on the job of verifying the authenticity of a manuscript, supposed to be Chapter Forty-two of Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers. After many adventures, Corso finds himself caught up in the activities of a clandestine society known as the Club Dumas.

Margot Livesey, New York Times Book Review contributor, wrote: "Mr. Pérez-Reverte … is extremely good on the business of book collecting. Among the pleasures of The Club Dumas is the intimate sense it conveys of this highly specialized type of commerce…. [He] does an admirable job of describing these bibliophiles, as well as of creating works like The Nine Doors, whose illustrations are reproduced and described in fascinating detail." A Times Literary Supplement reviewer reported, "Readers get, together with a mass of tables, diagrams, clues, decoys, and nudgings about intertextuality … all twenty-seven illustrations so that they can play spot-the-differences, and draw their own conclusions." The reviewer called The Club Dumas a "wayward and moderately enjoyable" mystery novel. Booklist contributor Brian Kenney labeled the novel "witty, suspenseful, and intellectually provocative." Although Livesey said she found herself "growing impatient" with some of the plot twists and narrative techniques, she called the book an "intelligent and delightful novel." The Club Dumas was adapted as the 1999 film The Ninth Door, starring Johnny Depp.

Pérez-Reverte's 1995 novel La piel del tambor, translated by Sonia Soto as The Seville Communion, was noted by reviewers for its enjoyably skillful plotting, rich use of background information (including in this case a map of Seville, Spain), and intellectual gamesmanship. The premise of the narrative is that the secret files of the Vatican have been broken into by a computer hacker whose message implores the Pope to help save a seventeenth-century Seville church destined to be demolished. The church, it is said, "kills to defend itself." Father Lorenzo Quart, a tall, good-looking priest-sleuth, is called in to investigate. Meanwhile, the parish priest, aided by an American nun, is fighting the corrupt real-estate developer who wants to build on the church site. Quart's self-discipline is challenged by the presence of a beautiful duchess whose estranged husband is a banker involved in the real-estate deal.

A reviewer for the Economist called Pérez-Reverte "a master of intelligent suspense and reader-friendly action" and pointed out that this novel was "a hymn to Seville" and a work in which "postmodernistic tics do not interfere with a smoothly written, realist novel." Paul Baumann, in a review for the New York Times Book Review, called Quart "a St. James Bond, an agent in a Roman collar and handmade leather shoes who wields a Mont Blanc pen instead of a snub-nosed Beretta." Baumann found the novel "good fun," "entertaining," and sometimes "silly." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented: "Despite some unconvincing plotting and a few heavy-handed moments, Pérez-Reverte's characters capture the imagination." John Elson of Time called the book "one of those infrequent whodunits that transcend the genre." Baumann wrote: "Pérez-Reverte writes with wit, narrative economy, a sharp eye for the telling detail and a feel for history…. You'd have to be a remarkably faithless reader not to want to visit Seville after finishing this flavorful confection." Elson concluded that the novel "may well inspire readers to order roundtrip tickets to an ancient city redolent of jasmine and orange blossoms."

La Carta Esférica comes from the author's lifelong love for the sea and sailing. Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden as The Nautical Chart, it involves an undersea treasure hunt for a fortune in emeralds amid the wreckage of a Jesuit ship sunk in the Mediterranean during the mid-eighteenth century. The protagonist, an exiled sailor named Manuel Coy, meets the beautiful Tanger Soto of Madrid's Naval Museum after she wins the bid for an old nautical map at an auction in Barcelona. Coy joins Soto in her search for the sunken treasure off the coast of Spain in the wreckage of the Dei Gloria. However, they encounter a group of sinister treasure seekers who want to stand in their way. As Coy falls in love with Soto, the reader begins to wonder whether she will betray him.

A Publishers Weekly contributor commented on the fact that the book was half over before the plot reached the sea, but thought "the underwater sequences that climax the story are masterfully done." Bill Ott Booklist contibutor wrote: "There is no universal meridian … when the course being charted attempts to penetrate the human heart." Ott wrote of Pérez-Reverte that he has "established himself as a master of the literary thriller" and "unfailingly melds a multifaceted tale of intrigue with characters of depth and dimension."

In La reina del sur, translated as The Queen of the South, Pérez-Reverte sets down the complex story of a female drug lord, Teresa Mendoza. As Teresa's story begins, she is largely innocent of involvement in illegal trafficking, except for her romantic relationship with a drug-running pilot. After his death in a plane crash, Teresa is slowly drawn into his world, and eventually heads up a ruthless, international drug-smuggling ring. Teresa's story is told through conventional narration and also through the reports of a journalist who is interviewing Mendoza's criminal contacts and law enforcement agents who pursued her. The novel gives a realistic picture of how the international drug trade works. Pérez-Reverte "excels in his meticulous research," commented Ilan Stavans in a School Library Journal review. Bill Ott, writing in Booklist, described The Queen of the South as "a thriller with an almost meditative tone."

Pérez-Reverte took his success to new levels with the publication of his series featuring the sixteen-century mercenary soldier, Capt. Diego Alatriste y Tenorio. Alatriste was a hero in the Thirty Years' War, and is known for surviving the Battle of Flanders, where most of his comrades perished. The novel takes place years later, when Alatriste, poor, disillusioned, yet still noble, survives as a hired swordsman. In the first novel, Capitán Alatriste, translated as Captain Alatriste, the captain is hired to terrorize some Englishmen; in so doing, he gets involved in affairs of state. The tale is "as gripping as any swashbuckler," stated Barbara Hoffert in Library Journal, yet it is also "a much more sobering tale of honor, responsibility, and political machination."

Altriste's adventures continue in Limpieza de sangre, translated as Purity of Blood. This story is "in the mold of Dumas' musketeer novels and excitingly upholds the tradition," found Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper. The plot has Alatriste hired to save a wealthy girl from a convent that is under the control of a corrupt chaplain. In the next installment of the series, El sol de Breda, translated as The Sun over Breda, Alatriste and his young servant, Inigo Balboa—the son of one of Alatriste's old war companions—return to Flanders to help Spain take the city. The climactic battle scene is told in great historical detail. The character of Alatriste is "a bit lost in the panoramic action—a real pity, given his riveting presence," stated Hoffert in a Library Journal review. The reviewer went on to say that Pérez-Reverte's depiction of the horrors of war is "faultless."

Discussing his "Captain Alatriste" series with Barbara Hoffert in Library Journal, Pérez-Reverte said that he wrote them because he "wanted to tell the story of the only type of hero that can exist today: the tired hero, the one who has fought in the name of king, country, god, or whatever cause and who, at the end of combat, discovers that life has taken away all his innocence and has left him only his pride and his sword." He added that these books "voice the lesson that even when empires pass (and they all do), the shadows of those who once built them continue to wander like ghosts amid their ruins."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 1994, Emily Melton, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 1667; October 1, 1996, Brian Kenney, review of The Club Dumas, p. 292; February 1, 1999, Brad Hooper, review of The Fencing Master, p. 941; July, 2001, Bill Ott, review of The Nautical Chart, p. 1951; January 1 and 15, 2002, review of The Nautical Chart, p. 762; April 1, 2004, Bill Ott, review of The Queen of the South, p. 1331; April 15, 2005, Brad Hooper, review of Captain Alatriste, p. 1414; December 1, 2005, Brad Hooper, review of Purity of Blood, p. 7.

Books, September, 1994, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 26; September, 1995, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 25.

Bookseller, May 28, 2004, "Arturo Pérez-Reverte," p. 27.

Book World, July 18, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 15; June 13, 2004, Jonathan Yardley, review of The Queen of the South, p. 2; May 8, 2005, Michael Dirda, review of Captain Alatriste, p. 15.

Detroit Free Press, January 11, 2006, Susan Hall-Balduf, review of Purity of Blood.

Economist, July 20, 1996, review of La Piel del Tambor, pp. 14-15.

Entertainment Weekly, June 11, 2004, Karen Karbo, review of The Queen of the South, p. 128; January 13, 2006, Tina Jordan, review of Purity of Blood, p. 85.

Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), June 19, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. D 12.

Hispanic, December, 2005, "Cold Skin," p. 78.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 218; April 1, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 478; July 15, 2001, review of The Nautical Chart; April 15, 2004, review of The Queen of the South, p. 356; April 1, 2005, review of Captain Alatriste, p. 381; January 15, 2007, review of The Sun over Breda, p. 46.

Library Journal, June 15, 1994, Barbara Hoffert, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 96; September 1, 1996, review of The Club Dumas, p. 211; March 15, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 95; March 15, 1999, Barbara Hoffert, review of The Fencing Master, p. 110; May 15, 2004, Lawrence Olszewski, review of The Queen of the South, p. 116; April 1, 2005, Barbara Hoffert, review of Captain Alatriste, p. 88; April 15, 2005, interview with Arturo Pérez-Reverte, p. 77; March 1, 2007, Barbara Hoffert, review of The Sun over Breda, p. 76.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 28, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 7; September 5, 1999, reviews of The Seville Communion, The Flanders Panel, The Club Dumas, and The Fencing Master, p. 9.

M2 Best Books, September 25, 2003, "Spanish Author Denies Plagiarism."

Maclean's, June 21, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 52.

National Post, February 25, 2006, "Swooning for Swashbucklers," p. 13.

New Yorker, April 27, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 161.

New York Times Book Review, March 23, 1997, Margot Livesey, "The Book Case," review of The Club Dumas, section 7, p. 10; May 3, 1998, Paul Baumann, review of The Seville Communion, section 7, p. 33; June 7, 1998, review of The Club Dumas, p. 36; May 23, 1999, review of The Seville Communion, p. 36; June 6, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 26; August 1, 2004, "The Cocaine in Spain," p. 13; February 26, 2006, "The Spanish Prisoner," p. 7.

Observer (London, England), July 31, 1994, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 5B; March 7, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 11.

Philadelphia Inquirer, June 1, 2005, "Pérez-Reverte Introduces 17th-century Spanish Soldier in Latest Novel."

Publishers Weekly, May 2, 1994, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 284; November 18, 1996, review of The Club Dumas, p. 61; February 23, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 49; March 1, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 57; August 13, 2001, review of The Nautical Chart, p. 281; May 10, 2004, review of The Queen of the South, p. 37; April 25, 2005, review of Captain Alatriste, p. 39; December 12, 2005, review of Purity of Blood, p. 40; March 13, 2006, "Pérez-Reverte's Next," p. 8; January 1, 2007, review of The Sun over Breda, p. 30.

School Library Journal, December, 2002, Ilan Stavans, review of La reina del sur, p. 41.

Time, June 1, 1998, John Elson, review of The Seville Communion, p. 87; July 12, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 77.

Time International, May 22, 2006, "The Pen and the Sword," p. 50.

Times Educational Supplement, December 29, 1995, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 12.

Times Literary Supplement, August 12, 1994, Michael Eaude, review of The Flanders Panel, p. 23; September 6, 1996, review of The Club Dumas, p. 23; July 24, 1998, review of The Seville Communion, p. 21; December 4, 1998, review of Patente de corso: 1993-1998, p. 8; April 9, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 27; March 26, 2004, "The Captain and His King: The Phenomenal Success of the Spanish D'Artagnan," p. 21; July 23, 2004, "A Chase in the Straits," p. 22; April 8, 2005, Martin Beagles, review of Cabo Trafalgar: Un Relato Naval, p. 32; January 20, 2006, "Sword for Hire," p. 20; August 18, 2006, "Retreat from Vukovar," p. 24.

Translation Review Supplement, December, 1999, review of The Fencing Master, p. 33.