The present study examines representations of nature found in the novelas de la selva written in the twentieth century. These include an �Enlightenment imaginary,� which deals with the conflict between nature and culture, myth and science; Edenic/Wilderness narrative, where Amazonia is represented as an untouched, primitive landscape; and finally, the more familiar Green Hell, a trope where the jungle is unforgiving, violent, and vengeful. Examined together, they reveal the evolution of Latin American nature in the novela de la selva from the pastoral to the wilderness imperative, as well as the changing national myth based on those same representations.