La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte

Father Joaquín Bolaños (d. 1796).
La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte
México: Impresa en la oficina de los herederos del Lic. D. Joseph de Jauregui, 1792.
BRB1298

La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte by Father Joaquín Bolaños is considered to be one of the first novels to be published in Mexico. Its protagonist is the female figure of Death, whose father is identified as Adam’s Sin and whose mother is Eve’s Guilt. The humorous and sometime satirical tale follows the events of Death’s life, including her several marriages to doctors—which ended in their deaths in the conjugal bed. Death’s anger at humanity for forgetting her constant presence is used by Bolaños, a Franciscan priest, to marshal the fear of death as a means of convincing the reader to live a Christian life.

Sources:
Arnaiz, Mercedes Serna. “La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte, de fray Joaquín Bolaños: Un Texto Apocalíptico y Milenarista.” Revista de Indias 77, no. 269 (2017): 115-136.

Olguin, Salvador. “The Astounding Life of Death.” Morbid Anatomy, (Thursday, July 9, 2009): http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2009/07/la-portentosa-vida-de-la-muerte.html.