Zalacaín the adventurer by Pío Baroja: SUMMARY and characters

zalacain the adventurer It is one of the classic works of Spanish literature, written by Pío Baroja in 1908. This novel is part of the tetralogy of Basque land, which contains 3 more books that perfectly express the society of Northern Spain at the time of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In this lesson of a PROFESSOR we want to make you a summary of zalacain the adventurer and their characters, so you can understand all the secrets that are hidden in its pages.

Index

1. Summary of Zalacaín the adventurer by Pío Baroja
2. Characters of Zalacaín the adventurer
3. Literary analysis of Zalacaín the adventurer
4. Fragment of Zalacain the Adventurer

Pio Baroja he wrote Zalacain the adventurer, a work that is required reading in many schools and institutes. For this reason, at unProfesor we offer you a summary to refresh your memory.

The protagonist of this novel is called Martin. Martín is a boy who lives in Urbía,

This enmity is due to Martín's past love affair with Catalina, Carlos's sister. When much more time passes and the Carlist war begins, Carlos Ohando, the brother of Martín's love interest and his enemy, joins the ranks of the Carlists. Zalacaín, having become a merchant specializing in the contraband that takes place in the border, he ends up being forced to join the priest's party, along with his brother-in-law and his good friend Baptist.

The priest's departure is a Carlist party well known for its brutality and violence on the battlefield. On the first occasion that the two friends meet, they escape along with the passengers of a stagecoach that will allow them to get away from the war. In this diligence they meet Rosa Briones, her mother Pepita and a foreigner who accompanies them on the road.

Once Martín manages to return to his usual life and leave the war behind, he, along with his brother-in-law Bautista de el, accepts a job that takes them to a remote town in the Basque Country. At that very moment is when good friends discover that Catalina is locked up in a convent. They, without hesitating for a minute, when they finish the work they have come to do in the town, rescue the girl and take her back home.

Finally, the love between Martin and Catalina becomes possible and the two young men marry and have a child. But misfortune has not abandoned his family. Martín is shot in the back by a friend of Carlos, while he was holding him by the neck. This act refers to the way in which his father died at the hands of a friend of the Ohandos.

The book ends when Martin dies at the end of the play and everyone cries for his death, especially Catalina, the woman who filled his heart.

characters in a playare the ones that help us understand what the plot is what is happening at all times and how the story that the author wants to tell us progresses. But these same characters are the ones that are loaded with Spanish customs of the time and can help you to get an idea of ​​what the society of the moment was like, how it behaved and what thoughts he had.

A very interesting curiosity of the novel by zalacain the adventurer is that all the characters that appear throughout the plot are exhaustively described by the narrator, both physically and his personality.

Here is a review of the characters of zalacain the adventurer.

Martin Zalacain

Martin Zalacain He is the main character of the work and the one about whom the plot of the book deals. His role is in charge of typifying the Basque behavior of the time. He is a young man who has suffered great needs because of the family in which he was born, since it is of a fairly low status. His grandfather is the one who teaches him everything he knows.

Miguel Tellagorri

Miguel Tellagorri He is Martín's grandfather and is the best intellectually prepared character in the entire novel. He is a man with a lot of energy, who has a feeling of protection towards his granddaughter, although he is also proud on certain occasions. He is dedicated to being a social doctor at the service of the war and his optimism makes him overcome any obstacle.

bautista urbide

bautista urbide He is Martín's best friend and they both live in a universe of adventures that stands out throughout the entire novel. He is the husband of Zalacaín's sister in adventurer, that is, the boy's brother-in-law. Although he is the main smuggler who helps Martín in his work, Bautista is a journalist by profession.

ignacia

ignacia she is the wife of Batiste Urbide and the sister of Martín. Both live in the municipality of Zaro and have been married for many years. This character is very important because he tells us, within the novel, about another of the jewels of Spanish literature that caused a before and after at the time the novel was written by zalacain the adventurer: If I decide to stay

Capistum

Capistum He is another of Martín and Bautista's friends: the American. These three characters are the ones who operate as a trio to do their smuggling work at the border.

Carlos Ohando

Carlos Ohando she is the brother of Catalina, the lover of Martín. This character has a very strong hatred towards Martín because she thinks she is inferior to him. The truth is that, in whatever they face, the protagonist is always better than him.

Rosita Briones

Rosita Briones she is a girl who feels a strong physical and emotional attraction towards Martín, to the point that she feels the imperative need to protect him at all times.

Brion Capital

Brion Capital He is the character who helps Zalacaín the adventurer guide the militant troops to a good port.

Beautiful

Beautiful she is a woman who suffers frequent abuse from her father. In a theatrical performance of puppets in the town, she meets Martín by chance and both are attracted nothing more to cross his gaze. Although that attraction is not enough to unite them and each one follows their path, without reaching anything more than a pleasant encounter. Some time later, the two characters meet again in Logroño, but at that time, Linda is already engaged to a marquis, so her love never works out.

We are going to analyze some of the aspects of the work of zalacain the adventurerso that you can better understand the book you just read or have a certain idea before reading, in case you are considering tackling this book.

narrator of zalacain the adventurer

The work of zalacain the adventurer he has a external narrator, omniscient, which knows what is going to happen in the future, the personality of the characters and is able to describe even their thoughts. The narrator is subjective and reveals his predilection for the "good guys" in the novel.

historical time

The story takes place in the XIX century, during the Carlist war of 1870. The narrative encompasses the life of Zalacaín from his eight years until his death. Going through the five years that the war between the Carlists and the Liberals lasted, approximately.

Place where the work takes place

The work takes place in different spaces of the Empty Country and the French Basque Country. All of them are towns and other points where the author really was, so the details that he expresses in the novel coincide perfectly with reality.

Pio Baroja describes towns objectively, although when describing the landscapes it is when he extends himself into subjective descriptions with which he wants to convey feelings to the reader.

A good way to understand the language the author uses to write the book is reading a snippet We leave you with a piece of the novel by zalacain the adventurer so that the bug can bite you and you dare to read the complete work.

"There are men for whom life is extraordinarily easy. They are something like a sphere that rolls down an inclined plane, without stumbling, without any difficulty.

Is it talent, is it instinct or is it luck? The interested parties themselves claim to be instinct or talent; his enemies say chance, luck, and this is more probable than the other, because there are excellent men ready for life, intelligent, energetic, strong and yet they do nothing but stop and stumble throughout.

A Basque proverb says: "Good courage frightens bad luck." And this is true sometimes... when you have good luck.

Zalacaín was lucky; everything he tried he did well. Business, smuggling, love, gambling... His main occupation was the trade in horses and mules, which he bought in Dax and smuggled through the Alduides or through Roncesvalles.

His partner was Capistun the American, a very intelligent man, already of age, whom everyone called the American, although it was known that he was a Gascon. His nickname came from having lived in America for a long time."

We hope this lesson has helped you understand a little better the novel of zalacain the adventurer and to understand the main characters that direct the plot. If you are interested in continuing to learn more about the main books of Spanish literature, do not hesitate to consult our reading section, where you will find all the information you need to continue immersing yourself in the world of books.

If you want to read more articles similar to Zalacaín the adventurer: summary and characters, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

• Eddy, N. W. (1926). Zalacain the Adventurer.
• Deibe, C. F. (1967). "Zalacaín the adventurer" and the three women of Pío Baroja. Modern Hispanic Magazine, 33(3/4), 285-292.