{{short description|1850 novel by Alexandre Dumas}} {{Infobox book | name = Montevideo, or the new Troy | title_orig = Montevideo, ou une nouvelle Troie | translator = | image = Montevideo, ou une nouvelle Troie.png | caption = Title page for ''Montevideo, ou une nouvelle Troie'' (1850) | author = [[Alexandre Dumas]] | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = France | language = French | series = | subject = | genre = | publisher = | pub_date = 1850 | english_pub_date = | media_type = | pages = | isbn = | oclc = | dewey = | congress = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''Montevideo, or the new Troy''''' ({{langx|fr|Montevideo, ou une nouvelle Troie}}) is an 1850 novel by [[Alexandre Dumas]]. It is a [[historical novel]] about the [[Uruguayan Civil War]], where the Uruguayan presidents [[Manuel Oribe]] and [[Fructuoso Rivera]] disputed the rule of the country. The name sets a parallelism with the [[Trojan War]], as Oribe kept [[Montevideo]], capital of Uruguay, under siege for many years (known as the [[Great Siege of Montevideo]]).
The plot of the book makes a summary of the history of Uruguay, from Spanish colonization to the Civil War. [[Juan Manuel de Rosas]], [[Juan Facundo Quiroga]], [[José Gervasio Artigas]], [[Bernardino Rivadavia]], and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]] are thus treated as literary characters.<ref name="Paradigma">[http://www.paradigmalibros.com/9789872218119/NUEVA+TROYA,+LA Reseña de NUEVA TROYA, LA] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304030424/http://www.paradigmalibros.com/9789872218119/NUEVA+TROYA,+LA |date=2016-03-04 }} {{in lang|es}}</ref> Dumas describes Artigas and Rosas as [[barbarian|barbaric]], and Montevideo as a source of civilization. A similar dichotomy between civilization and barbarism was the theme of ''[[Facundo]]'', another antirosist book published by [[Domingo Faustino Sarmiento]] in 1845.<ref name="Leedor">[http://www.leedor.com/notas/2277---la_nueva_troya.html La Nueva Troya] {{in lang|es}}</ref> Dumas described Rosas, who supported Oribe, as a coward who avoided the [[Argentine War of Independence]] and took control of [[Buenos Aires]] with a barbaric horde, and Montevideo as a heroic city standing against him.<ref name="Pagina">{{cite web|url=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/suplementos/libros/10-1861-2005-12-07.html|title=Página/12 :: libros}}</ref>
Dumas had never been to Uruguay, nor known first-hand about the war. His work was based on the reports of the antirosist [[Melchor Pacheco y Obes|Melchor Pacheco]], who sought French support against Rosas, and thus twisted the information about Rosas' administration in order to get such support.<ref name="Leedor"/><ref name="Pagina"/> It is likely that the similarities with Sarmiento's book were introduced by Pacheco's, as it would have been unlikely that Dumas had read the former's work.<ref>[http://www.elpais.com.uy/Suple/Cultural/07/06/01/cultural_283747.asp Bohemio de las pampas] {{in lang|es}}</ref>
The book has been edited twice in Argentina, once during the 1960s and again in 2005.<ref name="Paradigma"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v2rwonZ1qJwC|title=La nueva Troya|isbn=9789872218119|last1=Dumas|first1=Alexandre|last2=Waksman|first2=Alejandro|year=2005|publisher=Marea Editorial }}</ref> An English translation has been available for Amazon Kindle since 2019.<ref name="Paradigma"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Dumas-ebook/dp/B07Z32FFQY|title=Montevideo, or the new Troy|date=12 October 2019 |publisher=October 12, 2019) }}</ref>
==See also== *[[Troy]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Alexandre Dumas, père}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:New Troy}} [[Category:Novels by Alexandre Dumas]] [[Category:1850 French novels]] [[Category:Works about the Argentine Civil War]] [[Category:Uruguayan Civil War]] [[Category:Novels set in Argentina]] [[Category:Novels set in Uruguay]] [[Category:Montevideo in fiction]] [[Category:French historical novels]] [[Category:French war novels]]