Gaspar Ruiz by Joseph Conrad Fiction Literary Historical

<p><strong>A Revolutionary war raises many strange characters out of the obscurity which is the common lot of humble lives in an undisturbed state of society. </strong>Certain individualities grow into fame through their vices and their virtues or simply by their actions which may have a temporary importance; and then they become forgotten. The names of a few leaders alone survive the end of armed strife and are further preserved in history; so that vanishing from men's active memories they still exist in books.</p><p>The name of General Santierra attained that cold paper-and-ink immortality. He was a South American of good family and the books published in his lifetime numbered him amongst the liberators of that continent from the oppressive rule of Spain. . . .</p>