Horacio Quiroga

Horacio Quiroga (1878–1937) was a Uruguayan short story writer, poet and playwright, born in Salto and remembered above all for his stories. He lost his father in a hunting accident when he was a baby, and he grew up with a wide range of interests, including literature, chemistry, photography, mechanics and cycling. In his early twenties he discovered the poetry of Leopoldo Lugones and Edgar Allan Poe, and he wrote in the modernist manner, founding a literary circle in Montevideo.

After a tragic accident in 1901 that killed his close friend, Quiroga moved to Buenos Aires, where he taught Spanish. In 1903 he joined Lugones on an expedition to the jungle of Misiones, and the landscape marked him for life. Rural experience changed his style, and from 1904 he devoted himself to the short story. His tales set the conflict between humans and nature in the jungle, and his portrayals of madness and hallucination show Poe's influence. In turn, he influenced Gabriel García Márquez and Julio Cortázar. He died in Buenos Aires in 1937.

Reading Horacio Quiroga to learn Spanish

Quiroga wrote in the early twentieth century, in a modernist Spanish shaped by Poe's tightly built tales of fear and obsession. Expect vivid description of jungle and rural life alongside dramatic, sometimes disturbing events, so you will meet nature vocabulary as well as words for illness, emotion and danger. Some passages may feel demanding, but the stories are self-contained and short enough to finish in a sitting. Start with Cuentos de Amor de Locura y de Muerte (Tales of Love, Madness and Death), the one Quiroga book on Paralelo, at about 224 minutes of reading. Read it aligned phrase by phrase with the English beside it, one story at a time.