Doña Bárbara

Doña Barbara

Cover of the first edition of Doña Bárbara
Author	Rómulo Gallegos
Original title	Doña Barbara
Country	Spain (publication) Venezuela (subject and author)
Language	Spanish
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Editorial Araluce
Publication date	February 1929 (Eng. trans. 1931)
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	395

Doña Bárbara is a novel by Venezuelan author Rómulo Gallegos, first published in 1929. It was described in 1974 as "possibly the most widely known Latin American novel".

This regionalist novel deals with the confrontation between civilization and the barbaric aspects of the rural environment and its inhabitants. It is written in the third person and mixes vernacular language and regionalisms with literary narrative, making the main conflict more obvious and at the same time more tangible. This novel is considered a masterpiece of Venezuelan literature and a classic in Latin American literature. It establishes a psychological study of the people of the Venezuelan plains: victims of unfortunate situations, but at the same time strong and courageous.

Gallegos took his first trip into the Llanos of Apure, central Venezuela at Easter 1927, in order to gather material for the book he was writing, staying on a ranch near San Fernando de Apure. His previous book, La Trepadora, had been well received. He gathered many details of the local idiom, scenery, and daily life, and was inspired by the real people he encountered; Doña Bárbara herself is derived at least in part from the local landowner Doña Pancha. Of the fifty place names mentioned, over half are easily identifiable in the area, and many more can be associated with existing sites with a little more effort.

Within a month of returning to Caracas the first pages of the resulting novel, La Coronela, were being printed. Yet dissatisfied with the title and the first printed pages, Gallegos called the printing off. Gallegos then took his wife to Bologna, Italy, for an operation, and returned to the manuscript, making substantial revisions and coming up with a better title: Doña Bárbara. The novel was then first published in Barcelona, Spain, in February 1929, by Spanish publisher Editorial Araluce. It was substantially revised for its January 1930 second edition, Gallegos adding five chapters amounting to 20,000 words, re-ordering chapters, and making various other changes. Gallegos later made further changes, until the author was finally satisfied with his work in 1954.