Eugenio Cambaceres was the first to introduce the naturalist manner of Emile Zola to Argentinean literature in the late nineteenth century. The work of Cambaceres, a precursor to the contemporary Argentinean novel, is crucial for an understanding of the period of consolidation of Argentina, the formation of a national identity, and especially for the role of the intellectual during that transition. This gereation theoretically and methodically built up a literature with features of its own, stressing the cultural primacy of Buenos Aires par excellence, to enhance the evolution of the cosmopolitan metropolis. 

Edited and with an introduction by Josefina Ludmer.