Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez (born 25 November 1951) is a Spanish novelist and journalist. He worked as a

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

for

RTVE The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española (; ), known as Radiotelevisión Española (''Spanish Radio and Television'', RTVE), is the Spanish national public Broadcasting, television and radio broadcaster. It is a state-owned enterprise f ...

for 21 years (1973–1994). His first novel, '' El húsar'', set in the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, was published in 1986. He is well known outside Spain for his Captain Alatriste series of adventure novels, which have been translated into multiple languages. Since 2003 he has been a member of the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

Writing

Pérez-Reverte's novels are usually centered on one strongly defined character, and his plots move along swiftly, often featuring a narrator who is part of the story but apart from it. Most of his novels take place in Spain or around the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. They often draw on numerous references to Spanish history, the colonial past, art and culture, ancient treasures and the sea. The novels frequently deal with some of the major issues of modern Spain, such as drug trafficking or the relationship between religion and politics. Often, Pérez-Reverte's novels have two plots running in parallel with little connection between them except for shared characters. For example, in '' The Club Dumas'', the protagonist is searching the world for a lost book and keeps meeting people who parallel figures from Dumas's novels; in '' The Flanders Panel'', a contemporary serial killer is juxtaposed with the mystery of a 500-year-old assassination. In his often polemical newspaper columns and the main characters of his novels, Pérez-Reverte frequently expresses pessimism about human behaviour, shaped by his wartime experiences in such places as

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

. His views have also been shaped by his research for crime shows. Throughout his career, and especially in its latter half, he has been noted for cultivating his trademark maverick, non-partisan and at times abrasive persona. This has occasionally been a source of conflict with other journalists and writers. He originally refused to have his novels translated from the original Spanish to any language other than French. However, English translations were eventually published for some of his works, and most of his work is also available in Portuguese and Polish. Pérez-Reverte was elected to seat ''T'' of the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanopho ...

on 23 January 2003; he took up his seat on 12 June the same year. Themes such as the hero's tiredness, adventure, friendship, the journey as danger, death as the last journey, culture and memory as the only salvation that allows understanding reality, enduring pain and knowing the identity of the person and the world are frequent in his novels. The writer's view of existence in general is bleak. He hates Christian humanism and believes that pagan philosophy has a more accurate view of the world. Typical Revertian characters are the weary hero in hostile territory with a dark past and the femme fatal. Among the traits of the characters, moral ambiguity stands out. In the articles he publishes every Sunday in XLSemanal magazine, he harshly criticizes

postmodernity Postmodernity (post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist ''after'' modernity. Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in th ...

political correctness "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

, gender ideology,

neoliberalism Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pe ...

neoconservatism Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and ...

critical pedagogy Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education and social movement that developed and applied concepts from critical theory and related traditions to the field of education and the study of culture. It insists that issues of social justice and de ...

, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

inclusive language Inclusive language is a language style that seeks to avoid expressions that its proponents perceive as expressing or implying ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or insulting to particular group(s) of people; and i ...

and woke thought. He regrets that society is conditioned by the "whim of minorities" and that

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, "the moral reference of the West", copies the values of society in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, which he considers "sick and hypocritical" . He affirms that political correctness has its origins in Anglo-Saxon puritanism. In 1998, he published a very harsh article against

global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

that prophesied the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. This article was very successful on the internet when the crisis happened in Spain. An active user on Twitter, he has already created numerous controversies. In a controversial article he compared the European refugee crisis with the

barbarian invasions The Migration Period ( 300 to 600 AD), also known as the Barbarian Invasions, was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories ...

that led to the

fall of the Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...

. However, he was awarded the "Premio Don Quijote" of journalism.

Awards and recognition

*''The Painter of Battles'' won the 2008 Premio Gregor von Rezzori award for foreign fiction translated into Italian. *In 2016 Pérez-Reverte was named as one of the 10 most important writers of the year by the Spanish national newspaper ''ABC''.

Personal life

Pérez-Reverte started his journalistic career writing for the now-defunct newspaper ''Pueblo'' and then for

Televisión Española (acronym TVE, branded tve, "Spanish Television") is Spain's national state-owned public television broadcaster and the oldest regular television service in the country. It was also the first regular television service in Equatorial Guinea. T ...

(the Spanish state-owned television broadcaster), often as a war correspondent. Becoming weary of the internal affairs at TVE, he resigned as a journalist and decided to work full-time as a writer. His teenage daughter Carlota was billed as a co-author of his first Alatriste novel. He lives between La Navata (near Madrid) and his native Cartagena, from where he enjoys sailing solo in the Mediterranean. He was a friend of Javier Marías, who presented Pérez-Reverte with the title of Duke of Corso of the Kingdom of Redonda micro nation. His nephew Arturo Juan Pérez-Reverte is a professional footballer playing for

FC Cartagena Fútbol Club Cartagena, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Founded in 1995 it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Cartagonova'', with a capacity of 15,105 sp ...

. Perez-Reverte owns a library which has an estimated 32,000 books, as stated by himself.

Controversies

Mexican novelist Verónica Murguía accused Arturo Pérez-Reverte of plagiarizing her work. On 10 November 1997 Murguía published a short story, titled "Historia de Sami", in the magazine ''El laberinto urbano''. Months later, in March 1998, Pérez-Reverte published a story in ''El Semanal'', with the title "Un chucho mejicano", bearing close similarities in narration, chronology, phrases, and in the anecdote. Pérez-Reverte's story was recently republished in a re-compilation for the text ''Perros e hijos de perra'' (Alfaguara), and Murguía noticed the plagiarism at that time. Murguía would not proceed with a legal case but asked for an apology and the removal of the story from his text. Meanwhile, Pérez-Reverte apologized and noted that the story he published he wrote exactly as it was told to him by writer Sealtiel Alatriste. Pérez-Reverte's script for the film ''Gitano'' in the late 1990s also brought another charge of plagiarism against him. In May 2011 the Audiencia Provincial of Madrid ordered Pérez-Reverte and Manuel Palacios, director and co-writer of ''Gitano'', to pay 80,000 euros to filmmaker Antonio González-Vigil, who had sued them for alleged plagiarism of the film's script. Pérez-Reverte described this decision as "a clear ambush" and a "clear manoeuvre to extort money." The ruling contradicted two previous criminal rulings, and one from a merchant judiciary which had all decided in favor of Pérez-Reverte and Palacios. In July 2013 the Audiencia Provincial of Madrid ordered Pérez-Reverte to pay 200,000 euros to González-Vigil for plagiarism.

Bibliography

Captain Alatriste novels

* '' El capitán Alatriste'' (1996; tr: ''Captain Alatriste'', Plume 2005, ), presenting the character of a swordsman in the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Siglo de Oro'', , "Golden Century"; 1492 – 1681) was a period of literature and the The arts, arts in Spain that coincided with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic M ...

. * ''

Limpieza de sangre (), also known as (, ) or (), literally 'cleanliness of blood' and meaning 'blood purity', was a racially discriminatory term used in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires during the early modern period to refer to those who were considered ...

'' (1997; tr: ''Purity of Blood''), about the " purity of blood" demanded from

Converso A ''converso'' (; ; feminine form ''conversa''), "convert" (), was a Jew who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries, or one of their descendants. To safeguard the Old Christian popula ...

s. * '' El sol de Breda'' (1998; tr: ''The Sun over Breda''), about the war in the

Spanish Netherlands The Spanish Netherlands (; ; ; ) (historically in Spanish: , the name "Flanders" was used as a '' pars pro toto'') was the Habsburg Netherlands ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1556 to 1714. They were a collection of States of t ...

– specifically, the Siege of Breda. * ''El oro del rey'' (2000; tr: ''The King's Gold''), about the

Spanish treasure fleet The Spanish treasure fleet, or West Indies Fleet (, also called silver fleet or plate fleet; from the meaning "silver"), was a convoy system of sea routes organized by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790, which linked Spain with its Spanish Empi ...

. * ''El caballero del jubón amarillo'' (2003; tr: ''The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet''). Alatriste clashes with king

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV (, ; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the ...

. * ''Corsarios de Levante'' (2006; tr. ''Pirates of the Levant''). Alatriste fights Barbary pirates across the Mediterranean. * ''El puente de los asesinos'' (2011). Alatriste is involved in a conspiracy to kill the

Doge of Venice The Doge of Venice ( ) – in Italian, was the doge or highest role of authority within the Republic of Venice (697–1797). The word derives from the Latin , meaning 'leader', and Venetian Italian dialect for 'duke', highest official of the ...

Falcó novels

* '' Falcó'' (2016). Lorenzo Falcó is an intelligence operative working for the Nationalists during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, who embarks on a mission whose outcome may turn the tide of the war. * ' (2017). A new mission takes Falcó to

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

, where he must prevent the departure of the Moscow gold shipment. *''Sabotaje'' (2018). Falcó travels to Paris for a new mission involving painter

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

Other novels

* '' El húsar'' (1986). The story of a young hussars officer during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1808–1814) was fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Kingdom of Portugal, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French ...

* ''El maestro de esgrima'' (1988; tr: '' The Fencing Master'', Mariner Books, 2004. ). A mysterious lady requests lessons from a fencing master. * ''La tabla de Flandes'' (1990; tr: '' The Flanders Panel''). The mystery surrounding the relationship between a serial killer and a mysterious medieval Flemish painting. * ''El club Dumas'' or ''La sombra de Richelieu'' (1993; tr: '' The Club Dumas'' ). A cult of followers of the novels of

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

. * ''La sombra del águila'' (1993). Set during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. * ''Territorio comanche'' (1994). A novelization of his experiences as a war reporter during the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. * ''La piel del tambor'' (1995; tr: ''The Seville Communion''). A thriller involving hackers, the Vatican and the lost treasure of a privateer. * ''Un asunto de honor'' (1995). The story of an underaged prostitute. * ''La carta esférica'' (2000; tr: ''The Nautical Chart''). The story of a retired sailor who longs for the sea. * '' La Reina del Sur'' (2002; tr: ''The Queen of the South'' ). The story of a Mexican woman who becomes the leader of a drug trafficking cartel in southern Spain. * ''Cabo Trafalgar'' (2004), about the

battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval engagement that took place on 21 October 1805 between the Royal Navy and a combined fleet of the French Navy, French and Spanish Navy, Spanish navies during the War of the Third Coalition. As part of Na ...

. * ''El pintor de batallas'' (2006; tr: ''The Painter of Battles''). A retired war photographer confronts his past. * ''Un día de cólera'' (2007). 2 May 1808. The battle in Madrid against the French army for independence, hour to hour. * ''Ojos azules'' (2009). Spanish soldiers flee the Aztecs. * ''El Asedio'' (2010; tr ''The Siege'' by Frank Wynne). Set in 1811, during the

siege of Cádiz The siege of Cádiz was a siege of the large Spanish naval base of Cádiz by a First French Empire, French army from 5 February 1810 to 24 August 1812 during the Peninsular War. Following the occupation of Seville, Cádiz became the Spanish s ...

. * ''El tango de la guardia vieja'' (2012; tr: ''What We Become''). Romantic novel set across the world during the first half of the Twentieth Century. * ''El francotirador paciente'' (2013). A maverick graffiti artist constantly evades capture. * ''Hombres buenos'' (2015). About the

and the

Encyclopédie , better known as ''Encyclopédie'' (), was a general encyclopedia published in France between 1751 and 1772, with later supplements, revised editions, and translations. It had many writers, known as the Encyclopédistes. It was edited by Denis ...

* ''Los perros duros no bailan'' (2018). Novel told from the point of view of a street dog. * ''Sidi'' (2019). About the Castilian knight

El Cid Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar ( – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and ruler in medieval Spain. Fighting both with Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ("the Lord" or "the Master"), which would evolve i ...

. * '' Línea de fuego'' (2020). Nationalists and Republicans clash to capture a strategically important town in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

during the Spanish Civil War. * ''El italiano'' (2021). An

Italian Navy The Italian Navy (; abbreviated as MM) is one of the four branches of Italian Armed Forces and was formed in 1946 from what remained of the ''Regia Marina'' (Royal Navy) after World War II. , the Italian Navy had a strength of 30,923 active per ...

diver on a sabotage mission washes ashore in southern Spain during World War II. * ''Revolución'' (2022). A Spanish mining engineer is caught in the chaos brought by the start of the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution () was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from 20 November 1910 to 1 December 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It saw the destruction of the Federal Army, its ...

. * ''El problema final'' (2023). * ''La isla de la mujer dormida'' (2024)

Non-fiction

* ''Obra breve'' (1995) * ''Patente de corso'' (1998). Collection of press columns. * ''Con ánimo de ofender'' (2001). Another collection of columns. * ''No me cogeréis vivo'' (2005) * ''Cuando éramos honrados mercenarios'' (2009) * ''Los barcos se pierden en tierra'' (2011) * ''Perros e hijos de perra'' (2014) * ''La guerra civil contada a los jóvenes'' (2015). Illustrated by Fernando Vicente. * ''Una historia de España'' (2019)

Screenplays

* '' The Fencing Master'' (1992) (co-screenwriter with Antonio Larreta, Francisco Parra and

Pedro Olea Pedro Olea (30 June 1938, Bilbao) is a Spanish screenwriter, film producer and film director. His films '' A House Without Boundaries'' (1972) and '' Akelarre'' (1984) entered into the 22nd and the 34th Berlin International Film Festival. His ...

, based on his novel '' The Fencing Master'') *'' Comanche Territory'' (1997) (co-screenwriter with Slavador García-Ruiz and Alberto Lecchi, based on his novel on ''Comanche Territory'') *''Gitano'' (2000) (story, co-screenwriter with Manuel Palacios) *''

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

'' (co-screenwriter with Agustín Díaz Yanes, based on his short story)

Films and television series based on novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

* '' The Fencing Master'' (1992) (based on his novel '' The Fencing Master'', also co-screenwriter) *'' Uncovered'' (1994) (based on '' The Flanders Panel'') *''Cachito'' (1995) (based on ''Un Asunto de Honor'') *'' Comanche Territory'' (1997) (based on ''Comanche Territory'', also co-screenwriter) *'' The Ninth Gate'', by

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

(1999) (very loosely based on '' The Club Dumas'') *''The Road to Santiago'' (1999), Spanish television miniseries (story) *'' Alatriste'' (2006) (based on the series '' Captain Alatriste'') *''The Nautical Chart'' (2007) (based on ''The Nautical Chart'' and starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón) *''Quart: El Hombre de Roma'' (2007), Spanish television miniseries based on ''The Seville Communion'' *'' La Reina Del Sur'' (2011), telenovela airing on Telemundo based on ''The Queen of the South'' *'' The Man from Rome'' (2022), based on ''La piel del tambor''.

Notes

References

External links

* *
iCorso
*
Capitan-Alatriste.com, fan site with an English language sectionUnofficial website (very outdated)

Arturo Pérez-Reverte at XLSemanal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez-Reverte, Arturo 1951 births Living people 20th-century Spanish novelists 21st-century Spanish novelists Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Spanish reporters and correspondents Spanish male novelists Spanish television presenters Spanish historical novelists Spanish travel writers 21st-century travel writers Spanish war correspondents Writers from Cartagena, Spain Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age 20th-century Spanish male writers 21st-century Spanish male writers