Un bárbaro en París

The literary myths and intellectual dynamism in France seduced Vargas Llosa early in his career to the point that he came to believe that he would only become a writer if he arrived in Paris and managed to acclimatize to an environment that gave the arts and thought a privileged place. The novels of Dumas and Flaubert opened his imagination and inclined him towards realism, and the ideas of Sartre, Camus, Bataille, Aron and Revel showed him what a public intellectual should be like. As Carlos Granés indicates in the prologue to this book, "his intellectual and cultural training gave him the certainty that any Latin American writer, even one born in the Peruvian province (a barbarian), could participate in all political, cultural, and social affairs of his time if he was nourished by solid literary and philosophical traditions. Looking for France, Vargas Llosa found his native country and the whole world". The selection of writings that make up A Barbarian in Paris reflects this devotion to French culture that has led Vargas Llosa to be the first author of a foreign language to receive the highest honor for French-speaking writers: becoming one of "immortals". For this reason, the volume closes with the previously unpublished admission speech at the French Academy delivered in February 2023.