The Brave Bulls

Infobox Book
name = "The Brave Bulls"
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Tom Lea
illustrator = Tom Lea
cover_artist = Tom Lea
country =
language =
series =
subject = Raising fighting bulls
Bullfighting
Mexico
genre = Western, Southwestern
publisher = Little, Brown and Company (Boston)
pub_date = April 20, 1949
english_pub_date =
media_type =
pages = 270
isbn = 0292747330
(2002 reprint)
oclc = 4622973
preceded_by =
followed_by = The Wonderful Country

"The Brave Bulls" (aka "Toros Bravos" and "The Brave Bulls, A Novel") is a 1949 Western novel written by Tom Lea (his first) about the raising of bulls, on the ranch Las Astas, for bullfighting in Mexico.

Las Astas is based on the real "La Punta", a 15,000 hectare (about 37,000 acre) ranch in eastern Jalisco. [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,853797,00.html "Home of the Brave"] . - "TIME". - July 11, 1949. - Retrieved: 2008-07-03]

Lea, also an artist and muralist, did illustrations throughout the book and on the end papers and dust jacket. Prior to, during World War II, and after, Lea was an artist, and not an author. He went to Mexico to get a better idea about bullfighting, but forgot to take a sketchbook or paintbox, so he found himself using words to describe what he would have as a visual artist. [ [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/art/holdings/texas/lea/images/brave_bulls.html "The Brave Bulls"] . - Harry Ransom Center - University of Texas. - Retrieved: 2008-07-03]

Plot

"The Brave Bulls" is the story of Luis Bello, "The Swordsman of Guerreras", the greatest matador in Mexico, who is at the top of his profession, with everything that comes with it, money, a mistress, family and friends, bravado, the crowds are infatuated with him. But one day fear changes everything, he suddenly feels a fear that previously he had not felt in the invincibility that comes with healthy-macho-youth. His best friend and manager, Raul Fuentes, is killed in a car crash along with Luis's mistress, Linda de Calderon, after Linda and Raul had spent a romantic weekend together. This betrayal shakes Luis's beliefs about what has been real and what is real now. Now Luis must deal with these new found feelings while at the same time facing the most feared bulls in all of Mexico, "the brave bulls". In his first fight after the auto accident he is gored by a bull because of the doubt and guilt that has come into the ring with him. In addition, while under the influence of Tequila, and some pressure from ring promoter Eladio Gomez, he agreed to let his younger brother Pepe fight these top bulls with him. Luis must now examine his life to find out where the courage comes from and if he can get it back.

Quote box
width=300px
align=left
quote="...Lea's knowledgeable explanation of the mystique of bull fighting develops the theme of the fear of death. The torero Luis Bello conquers this fear when he accepts death as inevitable."
source=Lou Rodenberge
~
"A Literary History of the American West" [Rodenberge, Lou, (1987). - "The Southern Border". - "A Literary History of the American West". - Fort Worth, Texas: Texas Christian University Press. - ISBN 9780875650210]
title=A Literary History of the American West
date=

Reception

In "TIME"'s review, the magazine said about it: "The writing is clumsy in places, but it is also direct, penetrating and sustained; it makes the slicker sorts of professionalism look pointless. And the book is, finally, both religious in its treatment of ultimates and morally eloquent in its strong rebuke for those who scorn any culture but their own". And that it "qualifies as a work of art". [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,856272,00.html# "Scan with Your Life"] . - "TIME". - April 25, 1949. - Retrieved: 2008-07-03] Additionally "TIME" called it "The best "first novel" of the year..." [ [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855107,00.html "The Year in Books"] . - "TIME". - December 19, 1949. - Retrieved: 2008-07-04]

The book won the Carr P. Collins Award of the Texas Institute of Letters for best book by a Texan. [ [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/art/holdings/texas/lea/ Tom Lea] . - Harry Ransom Center - University of Texas. - Retrieved: 2008-07-03]

It is widely considered a classic of Southwestern American literature. [Magnuson, James. - Director - James A. Michener Center for Writers. - The University of Texas at Austin.]

Adaptations

It became a 1951 film with Mel Ferrer and Anthony Quinn. Directed and produced by Robert Rossen for Columbia Pictures, and adapted to the screen by John Bright. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043359/ The Brave Bulls] . - IMDb]

References

External links

* [https://www.utexas.edu/utpress/excerpts/exleabrp.html Preface with Excerpt: "The Brave Bulls"] - University of Texas Press