The conquest of Don Pedro

by Harvey Fergusson

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0007FCCUE
• Release Date: January 1954
• Publisher: W. Morrow
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Southwestern novel of love and sacrifice

Leo Mendes is a peddler who decides to come to the sleepy New Mexican village of Don Pedro and open a store. Patient, kind, trusting, and fair, he's slowly accepted by the community, especially by Padre Orlando, the local priest, and Don Augustin Vierra, the area's richest land owner. He falls in love with Vierra's impetuous and vibrant daughter, Magdalena, 24 years his junior. Mendes is not Catholic, and against everyone's wishes, they marry outside the Church. Everything is great until the young and ambitious Robert Coppinger shows up and steals the heart of Magdalena. The introspective and retiring Mendes is at a crossroads: should he fight for Magdalena or let her go? Struck by a quote from a Talmud his father had given him ("He who destroys one person has dealt a blow at the universe and he who makes life livable for one person has sustained the whole world"), and to Magdalena's disbelief and disappointment, he lets her go. Fergusson relates his story with a strength of writing often found only in the best myths or folktales. Although the characters are not merely types (they are too infused with passions and emotions for that), they do take on universal forms that define their personalities. Fergusson's writing sweeps the reader along, and I found it difficult to put the book down until I finished reading the whole thing. One might feel cheated at the end by Mendes's decision, but it suits his personality and isn't totally far-fetched. It's Fergusson's tender rendering of it, and the whole book, that makes reading the story such a pleasure.