Importance

by Manuel Mujica Lainez

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Fiction

Unknown Binding

About the author

Manuel Bernabé Mújica Láinez fue un escritor, biógrafo, crítico de arte y periodista argentino.

En 1936, publicó Glosas castellanas, una serie de ensayos centrados en su mayor parte en el Quijote.

Tres años después, publicó Don Galaz de Buenos Aires. Le siguen las biografías de su antepasado Miguel Cané (padre), en 1942, más las de Hilario Ascasubi (Aniceto, el Gallo, 1943) y de Estanislao del Campo (Anastasio, el Pollo, 1947).

En 1949, publicó un libro de cuentos, Aquí vivieron, en torno a una quinta de San Isidro.

Su segundo libro de cuentos, Misteriosa Buenos Aires, se ambientó también en la capital de la Argentina y su historia desde la fundación, en la que mezcla personajes típicos ficticios con hechos y personajes reales.

Le siguieron una serie de libros sobre la sociedad porteña de su época, con un tinte que algunos consideraron decadente: Los ídolos, La casa, Los viajeros, Invitados en el Paraíso.

Con Bomarzo, inició un nuevo ciclo de obras eruditas y fantásticas en el género de la novela histórica. Es una historia sobre el Renacimiento italiano narrada por un muerto, Pier Francesco Orsini, el noble jorobado que dio nombre a los famosos y extravagantes jardines italianos de Bomarzo. En esta novela se asiste a la coronación de Carlos I de España, a la batalla de Lepanto, pasando por las poco edificantes costumbres de papas y personajes de la época y crímenes de copa y puñal.

La obra ha dado argumento a una ópera con música de Alberto Ginastera, cuyo libreto compuso el mismo Mujica Lainez. Se estrenó en Washington en 1967 y fue prohibida por la dictadura militar de Juan Carlos Onganía, por lo que en la Argentina no se estrenó hasta 1972.

El unicornio está ambientada en la Edad Media francesa de los trovadores. Su protagonista es el hada Melusina, víctima de una maldición por la que, todos los sábados, adopta cuerpo de serpiente y alas de murciélago; testigo de los avatares de la época de las Cruzadas, sigue las peripecias de su prole de Lusignan hasta la toma de Jerusalén por Saladino.

Le suceden Crónicas reales, y De milagros y melancolías.

Ya en La Cumbre, Córdoba, escribió Cecil, relato autobiográfico narrado por su perro, el wipet Cecil, y El laberinto, otra novela histórica protagonizada por "Ginés de Silva", el chico que, en la parte inferior del cuadro El entierro del Conde de Orgaz de El Greco sostiene un cirio encendido, mira al espectador y presenta la escena al espectador, en el que según algunos autores, estaría retratado Juan Manuel Theotocopuli, el hijo de El Greco.

Esta novela presenta la sociedad española en tiempos de Felipe II, su esplendor y su miseria, antes de que el protagonista partiera hacia América. Éste declara ser hijo de la La ilustre fregona cervantina, y sobrino del Caballero de la mano en el pecho, y con esos mimbres presentará a personajes que van desde Lope de Vega al Inca Garcilaso, pasando por Fray Martín de Porres o Juan Espera-en-Dios, el Judío Errante (que, de una forma u otra, aparece en todas las obras de la trilogía formada por Bomarzo, El unicornio y El escarabajo).

Otros libros son El viaje de los siete demonios, Sergio, Los cisnes, El brazalete, El Gran Teatro y Un novelista en el Museo del Prado.

Todavía publicó otra novela histórica, El escarabajo, sobre un anillo egipcio que es, a la vez, el narrador de la historia de todos sus posesores, desde la reina Nefertari hasta una millonaria estadounidense, pasando por la mano de uno de los asesinos de Julio César o la de Miguel Ángel, entre otros.

Sus libros han sido traducidos a más de quince idiomas.

Se le deben, además, traducciones de los Sonetos de William Shakespeare y de piezas de Racine, Molière y Marivaux.

Reviews

[Adina ( back from Vacay…slowly recovering) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 9/72 from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature) read together with The Short Story Club

One thing I love about reading Short Story Anthologies is that I discover some wonderful writers that I've never read or even heared about. Manuel Mujica Lainez is part of the latter case. The Argentinian writer was a lot better known in his country than abroad. I think only two of his novels were translated into English, and that happened some years ago. So, I was surprised to hear of the writer's existence and also to see how strong this short story was.

Contains spoilers. A very rich old woman refuses to acknowledge her lower origins and ignores her family. She considers herself to be an important woman but when she dies, it soon becomes obvious she wasn't that way. In addition, instead of being send to the proper place after her death, heaven off course, she remains in the house where she died to witness the aftermath. The lawyer somehow "forgets" about the existence of her will where she donates all her fortune to some charity. Instead, everything goes to the despised family who moves in her former home. She soon realises, with horror, that she actually ended up in her personal hell, without even leaving the house.

[Cecily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short and not at all sweet, but very good. Reading it on Halloween was somewhat apt (not that there's blood and gore).

Mrs Hermosilla del Fresno is a very important woman. She’s very aware of her importance and wants to maintain the appearance of being important. Hence, she’s generous to charities, though it’s not entirely altruistic: she wants to ensure her place in Heaven.

She lives in a manner suited to her importance: a grand house, with servants. She shuns relatives she thinks are beneath her.
“She manages to wrap up their names and kinship in a half smile and an aloof glance, while her vanity spits and snarls inside her like a crouching tiger.”

Pride comes before fall in an unexpected, and nastily amusing, way. There are worse sorts of Hell than fire and brimstone.

It’s told (translated) in plain, short sentences, almost like a children’s book.


Image: “Rip” by Steven DaLuz (Source)

See also

A possible follow-up read is what looks like a non-fiction look at the issue: People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It , which I’ve not read.

Just before writing this review, I read the following line in Simon Van Booy's Father's Day (see my review HERE) and perhaps fits the ending of this story:
“Ghosts... are not the people who've died but the people who won't.”

Short story club

I read this in Black Water: The Anthology of Fantastic Literature, by Alberto Manguel, from which I’m reading one story a week with The Short Story Club, starting 4 September 2023.

You can read this story here.

You can join the group here.

[Connie G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Widowed Mrs Germosilla del Fresno lives in a house filled with possessions and servants. She is "of doubtful pedigree" so she avoids all her relatives so she can present herself as a wealthy, important member of society. This important widow unexpectedly dies, but her soul remains in her house. This three-page short story ends on a satisfying note.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great amuse-bouche tale by an Argentinian, short and satisfying, with a sweet-and-sour aftertaste finale.

Read with the Short Story Club
Week starting 30th Oct. 2023. - Story 12
from Black Water 1 (The Anthology of Fantastic Literature)
Read in Spanish

[Daniel Shindler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brief story employs an economy of words. It expands into volumes, ruminating on misplaced pride, status, and exaggerated self importance. The story nimbly moves from the simple to the complex and culminates with an ironic twist.

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

these relatives, are of no importance whatsoever . . .

Hell is frustration, apparently; to be in hell is to be unable to bend others to your will. To be ignored.

This brief short story from an Argentinian writer uses the word "important" many times (important widow, important charities, important parties, important servants, and so on) but the title word "importance" appears only a couple of times (one is excerpted above). Is this significant — or an accident of translation?

This is a clever, droll amusement, also perfect for Halloween, and a wonderful companion for The Playground.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short-short, a little bit fun, little bit spooky, about an important lady. “As befits her importance, she lives in a large mansion full of servants and important furniture and presides over important charities that require important parties.” She does not see her family as important, however the things we overlook can sometimes bite us in the end.

English translation can be read here: https://frightlibrary.org/lib/lainez1...

[Klowey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story in the Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature collection unleashes a twist of fate on a woman absorbed with self-importance.

[Hester · Rating 4 out of 5]

As short and simply written as a terrible fairy tale and definitely macabre with a mischievous tone. Vanity and snobbery brought to heel by a fantastic but appropriate twist . Great use of repetition . Perfect for these dark , wet days .

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief and enjoyable parable about heaven and hell.

Read it here for free: http://frightlibrary.org/lib/lainez1.htm

[Larrry G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to charitably chime in my two cents to the widow’s salvation kettle now that she's indignantly indigent - perhaps hence she'll appreciate this matter of no small import. We all had our fun richly relishing poor Mrs Germosilla del Fresno’s fall from grace at the hands of la Familia she so strived to unfamiliarize herself from. At her moment of need she is summarily shunned both by the society she showered shillings upon and by her humbling heritage, sentence to serve surreally the surety of their mutual disdain, impotent sans importance. Hoorah!

Hold the horses! In hindsight, isn’t Mrs Germosilla del Fresno quite quietly justified with regards to the nature of her one-time nurturers. They are indeed spot on ribald rogues which we would all do well to shun. And the society ladies who preyed upon her bulging benevolent persona in good times, afford little effort upon her diminished prospectus. Bereft of her soulmate, all that widow Mrs Germosilla del Fresno thereafter wanted was to be the scintillating senora of serendipitous means philanthropically redistributing unto the masses, with her only take being that of the sentimentally charming embodiment of the embellishment. In the end, it bodes ill when with no body left she is left with nobody of note to notice her. Like the goose who laid the golden eggs, she is macabrely dissected and found wanting, whilst ‘twould be wise to explore elsewhere for eternal economy of her effusiveness.

For the Short Story sojourners, I’d add this feels like in parsing touches of Ms. Brill to Enoch Soames

[Iona Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mrs Hermosilla del Fresno is a widow and a lady of great importance.

She lives in a large mansion full of servants and important furniture. Everything she has and does is important.

But she is of doubtful pedigree. I’m sure this means nothing these days, but apparently it did at the time of the story.

She believes in God and in Hell, but that she herself has earned a place in Paradise.

One morning she wakes, or does not wake, in her bed and realizes that she is dead.

She is little frightened because secretly she believes herself to be immortal.

(And she is correct, as our soul is in fact immortal: it is just our body that dies.)

She waits in vain to be collected by angels to take her to Heaven/Paradise.

(If she had lived in present times and had access to the net, she would know that in such a case she could merely call on the angels to come for her.)

Her cousins, neighburs and her abominable halfsister appear.

She cannnot utter a word.

She is used to giving orders and being obeyed and she begins to feel impatient when she is not taken to Paradise.

Six days pass, and she finds out that her solicitor has claimed that her will does not exist, though in fact it does and she has left her vast fortune to “colossal” charities.

In the absence of a will her fortune goes to her relatives. (The solicitor is probably in league with them.)

Week after week she lies there and her relatives move into her hme, They open her drawers, read her letters, etc.

Her relatives have learned to smile in the way she used to smile.

She remains motionless, invisible in her bed, slept in by other people who perform detailed acts of “sensuality” upon her illustrious ghostly body”.

She is still not taken to Heaven, not even to Hell. This is Hell.

(If she had been more informed, she would have realized that now she is dead, she can move about as she wishes and doesn’t need to remain in that bed or even that house.)

(She will not go to Hell, because we all go to Heaven, though some parts of it are less pleasant than others. She may not go to the most pleasant part, at least not immediately, simply because her feeling that she is important and thus better than others limits her degree of spirituality.)

I found this to be an edifying story.