Alatriste or the symbolic efficacy and mythical category of a literary character

Abstract

This review comments on and highlights the Captain Alatriste book saga, written since 1996 by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. What began as short deliveries, collaborating with his daughter Carlota, has already become a classic in our time. The review focuses on the idea of mythologizing a literary character that can already be compared to Don Quixote, Celestina or Don Juan, other myths of our literature. The strengths of Reverte's character are the mixture of tradition with modernity, the ambivalent characteristics of his personality, the duality of hero and antihero and, throughout the work, the varied narrative techniques, sometimes mixing history with adventure. and even with memories. In Alberto Montaner's edition, the extensive notes, the bibliography, the context of 17th-century Madrid (Alatriste's time) and the comments on the vocabulary used, according to the time, are noteworthy.