Martin Rivas de A. Blest Wins

Martin Rivasis a Chilean novel of the literary genre of costumbrismo of the 19th century. This is the masterpiece written by the Chilean novelist and diplomat Alberto Blest Wins in the year 1862. This work has been considered the first realist novel written in Chile, although some experts classified as a historical novel, since it deals with many of the events of the time in which it is set.

In this lesson from a PROFESSOR we want to leave you with a chapter summary of Martin Rivas, from which you can understand what people were like and what were the social customs of that time.

Index

1. Summary of part I by Martín Rivas (Chapters 1 to 5)
2. Summary of part II by Martín Rivas (Chapters 6 to 10)
3. Summary of part III by Martín Rivas (Chapters 7 to 15)
4. Setting by Martin Rivas

We begin this summary of Martin Rivas with the first part of the novel. Martin Rivas, a young provincial from Copiapó, arrived in the summer of 1950 at a beautiful hacienda in Santiago de Chile. The young man moves to this house with the purpose of

Don Damaso he was the father of this family and his wife was Doña Engracia. This family was also made up of their two children: Agustín, who had just returned from a trip through Europe and Leonor, who was the real head of the house and always did what she he ordered. From that very moment, the work begins to highlight all the differences that there are between the young provincial from the lower class, with the Encina family and his upper class.

Dámaso accepts the letter from Martín's father, because he owes his father favors. At that time the story goes back several years, when Dámaso makes a deal with José Rivas, a man who could not pay his debts, but who owned a mine. The deal consisted of José giving Dámaso some bars from the mine and in exchange he would defer the debt.

With time, Dámaso arrives to buy half of the mine and this gives him so many benefits that it allows him to position himself financially where he is now. Thanks to this story we discover that the initial owner of the mine is the deceased father of Martín Rivas. Dámaso agrees to take care of Martín because of the good friendship he had with his father and because he feels indebted to the man.

When he has been living in this house full of luxuries for a short time, Martín falls passionately in love with Leonor, but he knows that he must keep his feelings to himself, since this romance is not only impossible, but could cause him serious problems.

Like any wealthy family, at the time after dinner they all got together to have a chat time in which they talked about how their day had gone and the projects they had. At that gathering, interesting topics about the country's politics and economy were occasionally discussed, so other young people from the area such as Mendoza and Valencia attended.

Both young people say they are there for the gathering time offered by the Holm oak family, but in reality both are fighting for the love of Leonor, who pays no attention to either of them. Matilde, her parents and some of her friends also attend the meeting. In this gathering, politics is discussed: Don Simón and Don Fidel want Don Dámaso to join them in his conservative political tendency, supporting the government, but he is influenced by the liberalism that he had just read in a newspaper.

Martín Rivas then begins to fulfill his dream, thanks to the support of the Encina family, and enters study law at the National Institute. It is there where he meets his mysterious friend Rafael San Luis. This acts as a guide in the study center and helps him adapt to that environment so unknown to him and so hostile due to the perceived difference in classes. Even so, Martin notes that his friend is melancholic and that inside of him he carries great sorrow.

Martín always shows that he is a good student, answers the questions and makes debates where he demonstrates his intelligence and sharpness.

On the other hand, in the house of the Encina family there are a series of love affairs and romances that end with some new marriages and some ruptures of these, because of deceit and lies. Martín, who has tried to stay out of all this love mess, is pursued by Edelmira, a girl who is madly in love with him.

Since Martín does not want to get into trouble and has no interest in Edelmira, he decides return to his town Copiapó to visit his family for a while.

After spending a few months with his family, Martín Rivas decides to return to the capital, to the house of the Encina family. Edelmira has been waiting and madly loving Martín all this time, but when she sees him appear at the her door again, she realizes that she is not doing things right and that the boy turned to her town for his fault of him.

So he decides to show Leonor all the letters that Martín and she had written to each other, so that she the girl saw that the boy did not stop talking about her and that he was madly in love with Leonora. Edelmira knows that at that very moment she is shutting down any possibility of having an affair with Martín, but she believes that It is the most fair and sensible.

When it's been a month since Martín Rivas has returned to the house of the oaks, this he openly acknowledges his love for Leonor, because he can no longer keep quiet about what he feels inside. She assures that she was her first and only love and that she should admit it even though with this confession she was risking her permanence in the family and even her own life.

At that very moment, Leonor admits that she is also completely in love with Martín. Since Leonor already had two suitors, Martín had to confront them in order to gain the authority to possess Leonor's heart. Rafael San Luis, one of Leonor's suitors, dies in the battle and that makes the young provincial Martín Rivas decide to run away from the Encina house.

Only Leonor knows the whereabouts of Martín, so from time to time they meet in secret and confess the love they feel for each other. It is there where they decide their next step to follow. Martín will travel to Peru, where they get process your pardon for the death of Rafael San Luis.

When Martín returns to the capital he appears at the Encina house, with the pardon document, to ask for Leonor's hand. At the end of the book both young people get married and Don Dámaso Encina entrusts all of his businesses to Martín, with the full confidence that he will make them grow. Dámaso then retires and decides to dedicate himself solely to politics, which is his true passion.

That is how ends Martin Rivas, this costumbrista work that tells us about the habits of a house, depending on the social rank to which they belong, the difficulty of the studies of the time and of the love affairs that occurred between members of the same class and of classes different.

Martín Rivas's novel is set in the city ​​of Santiago de Chile in the middle of the 19th century. This novel mainly takes place in closed spaces, such as the Encina family house or the Molina house. The open spaces are less frequent, but we can find that the action takes place, sometimes, in the Campo de Marte, Alameda and the square. Square It is where the entire sociocultural aspect of which the work speaks to us is developed.

This book talks a lot about the social and cultural differences among the characters that appear. While Martín is a humble young man who comes from the town of Copiapó, the Encina family is a clan of the capital that is characterized by being very well-off, both economically and in position social.

Although Martín changes his country life for life in the city, in his character we can always find some strong rock life values. In other words, Martín never betrays his cultural identity or pretends to be someone he is not, despite the fact that a strong contrast is seen, which always ends up being harmful to him.

As you read the work, you can form a clear idea of ​​the city of Santiago at that specific time. The fact that Blest Gana has written the work at the same time in which it is set It is a great advantage from the historical and reliability point of view, since it is capable of exhaustively capturing what the society of the moment was like.

Now you know the chapter summary of Martin Rivas, one of the most important works of the Chilean Alberto Blest Gana. If you are interested in continuing to learn about more relevant books in the literature of the language Spanish, do not hesitate to consult our Reading section, where you will find many more titles by discover.

If you want to read more articles similar to Martín Rivas: summary by chapters, we recommend that you enter our category of Reading.

• Blest Gana, A. (2011). Martin Rivas. Martin Rivas, 1-390.
• Araya, G. (1975). Love and revolution in "Martín Rivas". Bulletin Hispanique, 77(1), 5-33.