FAUSTO

In Estanislao del Campos Fausto, a truly gauchesca work, the vocabulary, the simplicity of its plot and the nature of its metaphores cannot be of a more unencumbered and jocose criollo tone, or more camp flavoured. It is known that during the representation of Gounods opera Faust at the old Colon theatre in Buenos Aires, Del Campo improvised for the benefit of Ricardo Gutiérrez -phisician, poet and friend- some short gaucho remarks about what they were seeing. Encouraged by the amused Gutierrez, Del Campo decided to put his gauchipoéticas remarks by written, and in little more than a month the book became a huge literary success. Its hilarity lies in the fact that the gaucho is a peasant, and through his point of view the actions take the graphic simplicity of the camp world, blithely distorting the medieval drama. Reading Fausto today is as much fun as it was a hundred and forty years ago, reason enough to do it without the need of considering that it also integrates, along Hilario Ascasubis Santos Vega and José Hernández Martín Fierro, the gauchesca poetry ultimate trio. The lexicographic notes included in this edition are the result of a research work based on the following sources