“broken mirror This is a novel where everyone falls in love with someone they don’t need to fall in love with, and those who lack love want love to be given to them, no matter what, even for an hour or a moment. ” These are the words of Merce Rodreda (Barcelona, 1908 – Girona, 1983) in the prologue of the novel. broken mirror (1974) is the longest novel he wrote, and for many it is his best work. Twenty years after the last edition in Spanish, Seix Barral has retrieved the book with the same translation by Pere Ginferer and a new prologue by Rosa Montero, in the same vein of retrieval of postwar writers that they have already undertaken with Concha Arroz and Luis Martín-Santos.
In Catalonia, Rodreda is an authoritative figure, and not just because it’s written as such in the literature manual. That said, few people probably had to read his novels through secondary school, but generally diamond square (1962), aroma (1938) or equivalent; broken mirror. It is difficult to choose just one masterpiece of hers, because her level of self-demand is very high, and the way she expresses her literary pulse has evolved so much over the years that each reader can choose his favorite. To what has been mentioned, we must also add his posthumous works. death and spring (1986) is a Gothic novel that distances itself from urban realism and whose literary corpus was until recently largely misunderstood (for the Spanish edition by the Club editors, an afterword was prepared at the request of Mariana Enríquez to provide ideas).
reading adventure broken mirror It begins before the first chapter of the novel, thanks to a prologue signed by the author himself, more valuable than any creative writing. This is a rare passage in which Rodreda reflects on the development of the book and his narrative project as a whole. Privileged access to the workplace of a constantly searching novelist like Gustave Flaubert le mot juste And he never lowered the bar.
writing broken mirror It started in exile. In January 1939, the author, along with other Catalan intellectuals, fled to France. She had already published five novels, although she had not yet finally become a famous author. Eventually, she abandoned the work of her youth. aromaYes, she rewrote conscientiously, but she also carried out journalistic activities and was successfully integrated into the Catalan literary sphere. During her exile, she experienced many financial hardships, worked as a seamstress, and for a time was only able to write a few poems, but this did not dampen her ambition.
His first years in exile, which lasted until 1972, were spent with the poet and critic Armando Obiols, a pseudonym of Joan Prat (Sabadel, 1904 – Vienna, 1971). She was the love of my life, served as my first reader, and encouraged me to continue to grow as a storyteller. However, he was married and had a daughter who was with her mother in Catalonia. This situation caused Rodreda quite a headache and he hit rock bottom. In fact, the latest research suggests he was contemplating suicide. Author expert Eva Comas-Arnal has written a novel about this relationship. Merce y Joan (Proa Award 2024).
At the end of the 50s, Rodreda resumed writing novels and submitted several manuscripts to the Catalan Prize, without much success, but through rewriting, little by little he managed to re-establish himself on the literary stage, this time in a new dimension. For a while, he also worked as a writer. diamond square and broken mirror‘ took longer than expected to see the light of day, so we thoroughly reviewed and polished it. and broken mirror She wanted to write a novel with many characters and a large garden (under the influence of her grandfather, she herself grew up loving flowers, an important element of her work, and began growing her own flowers in Lonha de la Selva, a town in Girona where she settled after returning home).
Decline of the Catalan bourgeoisie
Among the many (and notable) admirers of his work is Gabriel García Márquez, who is said to have learned Catalan so he could read the original editions. If you compare broken mirror and hundred years of solitude (1967), we can indeed see similarities between the two: a family story, an important symbolic load, the voices of different social classes, and above all a sense of decadence. broken mirror It depicts the rise and fall of the Valdaura family, the paradigm of the Catalan bourgeoisie, from the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Spanish Civil War. It all begins with Teresa Godei, the daughter of a fishmonger, who marries landowner Salvador Valdaura for the second time.
The enchanting Teresa always knew she was destined for something more than helping her mother clean fish at the Boqueria market. However, the future of her and her descendants is determined by fate. Rodreda weaves a dark, sometimes suffocating novel that combines third-person narration and monologues from various characters with an uncanny mastery of a free indirect style that looks into a shadowy inner world. In addition to Teresa Goday, Armanda also deserves special mention. One of the maids who has been with the family the longest, she has appeared in some iconic scenes and was played by Emma Villarasau in the series of the same name by Josep Maria Bene y Jornet in 2001.
Mirror – or better yet, of The mirror, the mirror not only returns its image, but is also imbued with fantastic and distorting effects, and is an important symbolic element in various scenes of the novel. But that’s not all. As in all of Rodreda’s works, he makes lavish use of objects associated with nature, such as gardens and different types of trees and flowers, which relate to the conditions in which the characters and their relationships are found. It depicts a mansion and its interiors, spaces and decorations that have lost their luster, as well as families and historical developments, culminating in the appearance of the mouse.
The characters, especially the female characters, are also a strength of this work. broken mirror and the whole story (the main characters) aroma, diamond square and is unfairly underrated. camellia street). A woman like Teresa Godey, established as a lady of high society, is a beautiful and cursed woman with a “tainted” background and an unhappy future. His daughter Sophia is very different from her mother, has a cold personality and represents a new generation of wealthy people. Armanda, a servant, goes to work at an early age and eventually becomes the lady’s confidant, loyal and generous companion, and keeper of secrets. In some chapters, this worship forms a poetic chorus, allowing the author to depict the passage of time and the gradual decline of the family.
A novel about loneliness in a crowded house, family rivalries, worldly passions and interests, the contrast between high and low, the indomitable nature and decline of human creation, the human species itself. A psychological novel, a reflection on the passage of time, the loss of a lost paradise that never really existed. The collapse of the universe, an X-ray photograph of a dream that humanity has ruined with its lowest instincts. A novel of rise and fall, youth and old age, master and servant, death and resilience, deception and purity, corruption and naivety. If there is any work worthy of the description “round,” this is one of them.
Merce Rodreda, bottomless pit
Merce Rodreda, like her idols Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Rosa Chacel, is playing in the Giants League. Like them, she was an innovator in Catalan literature, and European literature in general. Her mature works, which elevated her to a place in the pantheon, saw the light of day during what could be called the golden age of Catalan literature under the Franco regime. From the late 1950s, a formidable cultural opening allowed publication in Catalan, which had previously been prohibited. Literary awards were created, and various writers who had switched to Spanish or lived in exile returned to publish in their native language.
Merce Rodreda, like her idols Thomas Mann, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Rosa Chacel, is playing in the Giants League. Like them, she too was a literary innovator
In just a few years, works that became the foundation of Catalan culture were born. uncertain glory (1956), by Joan Sales – who was also the founder of the Club Editor label and editor of Rodreda and many other famous authors –; Kuala Lumpur Empire (1963); Joaquín Amato-Piniera’s important testimony about the Nazi concentration camps. Bearn or the Doll’s Room (1961), by Llorenz Villalonga. he romance (1957) and natural story (1960), by Joan Perchot, an inescapable representative of the Catalan fantasy genre. Stories in various volumes by short-distance master Pere Calders. and already mentioned diamond square (1962) was the first of Rodredo’s great novels, and although it did not win the Sant Jordi Prize for which he sent the manuscript, and was considered “cheesy” by the jury Josep Pla, over time it was popularized as a transcendent classic.
And the best news is that Rodreda not only didn’t stop there, but continued to grow as a stubborn and indefatigable writer, continuing to expand his map. broken mirror once again presents itself as a hypnotic, suffocating and captivating family story, with unforgettable characters and hauntingly lyrical scenery. Dark, because there is no other honest way to write from the tears of war, from the distance of her family – she left her mother and son behind in Barcelona, the result of her unhappy young marriage to a cousin of the family, a “returned Indian”, an episode she did not allude to, information of which has come to light in recent years – from heartbreak, but from the reality of an enlightened Europe that has brought to fruition the worst human fears.
The world Rodreda knew was not kind. The same goes for literature, no matter how much its depictions of flowers and femininity are sometimes criticized as inorganic. All integrate a fading mythical landscape that reflects the spirit of the times, the human presence. In a letter from exile, he defined himself as a “literary beast” who would make a “Sicilian horse entrance” and return to the ring, while struggling to write and publish again. “No one will stop me,” he declared, and he was right. And in addition to writing, he also began to paint from that time.
Although the book has been studied in universities for many years and has many loyal readers, in many ways Rodreda remains a bottomless pit, a box of secrets that have never been fully deciphered. Or, it is a treasure chest where new discoveries never cease, new reading material illuminated by the current light from the fresh eyes of young people. Now it’s the turn of the Spanish version of this wonderful family novel, “The Battle of Love or Hate.” What is “happiness lost” on that page will become “happiness found” to the reader.
About The Author
