One Hundred Years of Solitude is available to watch on Netflix. (Image: NETFLIX)
Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude has finally made its comeback with fans filled with questions about its inspiration.
With its latest episodes released today, Wednesday, August 5, some Netflix fans are only just discovering the epic Spanish-language drama One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Based on the iconic Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1967 novel of the same name, the series follows seven generations of the Buendia family who founded the utopian town of Macondo.
From a family curse and impossible loves, to madness and civil war, a further seven episodes have been dropped following an 18-month wait.
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And as subscribers still have to wait until Wednesday, August 26, for the grand finale to be released, here’s how One Hundred Years of Solitude differs so far from the novel.
One Hundred Years of Solitude book differences explained
Melquiades’ snake drawing
One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix introduces the symbol of a snake eating itself. (Image: NETFLIX)
While Netflix’s adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude has been praised as a faithful remake of the book, there are still some key differences. One of them is the inclusion of the drawing of a snake biting its own tail in Melquiades’ manuscript.
This isn’t featured in the original novel but does symbolise how the Buendia family is doomed to repeat the same cycle of mistakes for generations.
Netflix drama’s opening is the book’s ending
One Hundred Years of Solitude begins with Aureliano reading Melquiades’ manuscript. (Image: NETFLIX)
The novel begins with the image of Colonel Aureliano Buendia “faced [with] the firing squad” but the series doesn’t.
Instead, the Netflix show begins at the book’s end with sixth-generation Buendia family member Aureliano visiting his family’s ruined home. It is here that he discovers a manuscript written by Melquiades that predicts the family’s most important experiences over the past century.
The book also features that symbolic drawing of the snake eating itself.
Insomnia plague
One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix features a different version of the Insomnia Plague. (Image: NETFLIX)
In Marquez’s novel, the insomnia plague is depicted as a supernatural sickness that hits the town of Macondo.
A key symptom of this plague in the book is the idea of “lucid hallucinations” where residents are able to share their dreams with one another.
Instead, the Netflix drama focuses on more grounded reality which sees the mental breakdown of characters and the progression into amnesia.
Arcadio and Dr Alirio Noguera
Netflix’s adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude introduces a new dynamic between Arcadio and Dr Alirio Noguera.
Arcadio is left feeling like the black sheep of the family, having never learned who his real parents are and so, in both the book and the show, gets involved in the local liberal group.
He becomes influenced by Dr Alirio Noguera who is described as a “terrorist” in the novel, although their dynamic isn’t as clearly shown as it is in the Netflix series.
Francisco the Man is not included
Francisco the Man, a legendary 200-year-old character in Colombian folklore, has a part to play in the book as he “frequently passes through Macondo distributing songs that he composed himself”.
He may be rarely mentioned in the novel but Aurelianio II does play his music and Ursula learns of her mother’s death from him.
However, Francisco the Man doesn’t actually appear in the Netflix series, despite his quiet importance to the novel’s Colombian culture.
One Hundred Years of Solitude is available to watch on Netflix.