SOURCE: "The Use of Music in Literature: 'El Acoso' by Alejo Carpentier and Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) by Beethoven," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Winter, 1971 pp. 103-111.

In the following essay, Giacoman details how Manhunt reflects in its characters and structure the themes and design of Beethoven's Eroica.

Throughout the history of the Arts there has been intense interest in the relationship between music and literature. It is the writer's thesis that El Acoso, in addition to its many virtues as a novella, is a rare successful attempt meaningfully and consistently to represent in a literary work the complex structure, tone, and rhythm of a specific musical work (Beethoven's Eroica). Because of the specialized focus of this study on the structural similarities between Beethoven's Third Symphony and Carpentier's El Acoso, I shall ignore the many other aspects of the story, attempting to focus on one question...