Recommended Books & Films

Fiction & Biography

Denounced by some as superficial, James A. Michener's Iberia (Random House) remains the classic travelogue on Spain. The Houston Post claimed that this book "will make you fall in love with Spain."

The latest biography on one of the 20th century's most durable dictators is Franco: A Concise Biography (Thomas Dunne Books), which was released in the spring of 2002. Gabrielle Ashford Hodges documents with great flair the Orwellian repression and widespread corruption that marked the notorious regime of this "deeply flawed" politician.

The most famous Spanish novel is Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Readily available everywhere, it deals with the conflict between the ideal and the real in human nature. Despite the unparalleled fame of Miguel de Cervantes within Spanish literature, very little is known about his life. One of the most searching biographies of the literary master is Jean Canavaggio's Cervantes, translated from the Spanish by J. R. Jones (Norton).

Although the work of Cervantes has attained an almost mystical significance in the minds of many Spaniards, in the words of Somerset Maugham, "It would be hard to find a work so great that has so many defects." Nicholas Wollaston's Tilting at Don Quixote (André Deutsch Publishers) punctures any illusions that the half-crazed Don is only a matter of good and rollicking fun.

Ernest Hemingway completed many works on Spain, none more notable than his novels of 1926 and 1940, respectively: The Sun Also Rises (Macmillan) and For Whom the Bell Tolls (Macmillan), the latter based on his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Don Ernesto's Death in the Afternoon (various editions) remains the English-language classic on bullfighting.

Economic, Political & Social History

For a firsthand account of the civil war and its devastating effects on Barcelona and Catalonia, George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia remains a classic. Irish writer Colm Tóibin takes a more light-hearted look at post-Orwell Barcelona, with plenty of anecdotes and colors through the eyes of a güiri (foreigner) in Homage to Barcelona. The city's most prolific writer, poet, and essayist is the late Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. His Barcelonas is more of an insider guidebook, which combines lively accounts of Catalan history, character, and culture with scathing wit and insight.

Barça: A People's Passion, by Jimmy Burns (Bloomsbury, 2000), is a dramatic history of the city's soccer team, the richest and possibly most politically charged soccer club in the world.

The Arts

Antoni Gaudí is the Catalan architect who most excites visitors' curiosity. The latest study is Gaudí: A Biography, by Gijs van Hensbergen (Perennial, 2003). The author claims Gaudí was "drunk on form," and that the architect still has not lost his power to astonish with his idiosyncratic and innovative designs.

Spain's most famous artist was the Malaga-born Pablo Picasso. Picasso spent his formative years in Barcelona, and the most controversial book about the late painter is Picasso, Creator and Destroyer, by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington (Simon & Schuster).

Catalonia's other headline-grabbing artist was Salvador Dalí. In Salvador Dalí: A Biography (Dutton), author Meryle Secrest asks: Was he a mad genius or a cunning manipulator?

Residents of Catalonia truthfully maintain that their unique language, culture, and history have been overshadowed (and squelched) by the richer and better-publicized accomplishments of Castile. Robert Hughes, a former art critic at Time, has written an elegant testament to the glories of the capital of this region: Barcelona (Knopf). This book offers a well-versed and witty articulation of the city's architectural and cultural legacy. According to the New York Times, the book is probably destined to become "a classic in the genre of urban history."

Andrés Segovia: An Autobiography of the Years 1893-1920 (Macmillan), with a translation by W. F. O'Brien, is worth seeking out if you want to know more about the great classical guitarist.

Cuisine

One of the best books out on the local gastronomy is written by an American. Catalán Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret (Grub Street, U.K.), by Colman Andrews, is a colorful exposé of food, wine, and culinary customs of Catalonia. Andrews's conversations with chefs, his descriptions of wild mushroom-picking and village food markets, and explanations of why the Catalans eat the way they do makes for terrific reading.