A Fantasy Novel, Set in Mexico and Hell

El dominio de Satanás [Satan's Dominion]

Mateos, Manuel

Notes: A little-known sensational pulp novel about a Mexican physician whose wife is kidnapped by Satan. The main settings are a small fictitious Mexican village and Hell. This one of several novels attributed to Manuel Mateos and published by Pascual Viola, one of the leading Spanish-language US publishers in the mid-1920s.

The back cover lists 17 Viola titles in its Novela Mexicana series, described as a "colección de hermosas e interesantes novelas escritas expresamente uara (sic, para) los mexianos (sic, mexicanos)" [a collection of charming and interesting novels written expressly for Mexican people." The books are all 40 cents and the list includes Viola's best known book, El sol de Texas by Conrado Espinosa.

The dramatic cover—a standard feature of Viola books—is by Eddie L. Martinez and depicts Satan reaching for a naked woman and a centaur embracing a naked woman. An angel with a sword looks down upon the fiery scene.

The print run on the title page is given as 25,000 copies, surely an exaggeration as no copies are recorded in OCLC. In any case, this is a rare example of religious fantasy, written in Spanish and published for Spanish-speaking readers in the US.

126 pages.

Edition + Condition: First edition. Minor chipping to the back cover, else a near fine copy. A circular ink stamp on the cover reads "Train price 50 cents."

Publication: San Antonio, TX: Viola Novelty Co., 1927.

Item No: #308168

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