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Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto is a novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel Laureate in Literature in 2010. It was first published in April 1997 by the Spanish publishing house Alfaguara. In fact, for Alfaguara, the novel Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto was not the first of five short stories delivered by the writer; in truth, the author decided to publish the book after a relative hiatus of about ten years since the last appearance of the figure of Don Rigoberto (In Praise of the Stepmother, 1988).
The book has often elicited criticism for its content, as, despite being well-conceived, in almost all its pages one finds male and female figures, whose apparent sequence of images is maintained. Starting from a retrospective based primarily on a series of erotic texts, a single epilogue and new chapters have made it a book with an intelligent structure. The content was inspired by reflections based on pictorial, musical, and literary works of art, including: The Origin of the World, Sloth and Lust, Nude with Cat, Diana and Her Companions, The Prayer and the Back, and The Turkish Bath.

An anonymous annotation by Don Rigoberto appears in every chapter. This same note becomes relevant in the second part of the book, where the characters' actions, through this device, transition from one erotic image to another, not in an antagonistic sense, but rather as a precise counterpoint. Many of the wordplays should not be taken seriously, as in its context this strategy can be regarded as the emblematic case of a coin with the same face. In his notebooks, fantasy is an essential element: Don Rigoberto criticizes fashion standards to promote Renaissance forms, showcasing erotic fantasies for the nude because it is awakened from the "most private place." All this is presented from a provocative yet controlled point of view.
Taken as a whole, these notebooks philosophically pursue a carnal love, but in the narration, Rigoberto, the Stepmother, and the other figure (the son) serve only as a strategic pretext for the protagonist's adventures. Furthermore, halfway through the book, Llosa refers to the democracy of sex. In the controversy, the author asserts that this type of democracy is an absurd idea because: "Democracy must only have to do with the civil dimension of people. And love, desire, pleasure, and religion belong to the private sphere of the subject." Therefore, he states that sex cannot be democratic. At times, this physical practice may be presented in an aristocratic manner, but it is undoubtedly indispensable for everything.

What to say: it is enjoyable to read, but perhaps not twice. Probably also due to the nature of Vargas Llosa's work, as this novel was conceived as a polemical manifesto and not as a form of heroism granted by enemies, where the act of heroism is compulsory for such people. In his dispute, the writer wants to convey that to have a proper death, it is not necessary to die through nominal and native signatures. Thus, in the book Los cuadernos de don Rigoberto, the writer, after many years, only intended to mark his return to literature alongside Don Rigoberto.