The second volume in the new “Barcelona en la Literatura Universal” [Barcelona in World Literature] collection explores the creations of French-language authors who have left their mark on the city.

French literature first took an interest in Barcelona in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rural life and the deeply rooted traditions of southern Spain give way to a more social vision, and the novels portray the city as a hub of artistic and political activity. From Dadaism to more contemporary novels, as well as first-hand accounts of the Spanish Civil War and the post-war period, this volume draws on a wide-ranging corpus of French-language texts to explore a fascinating history of cultural exchanges.

La ciutat incandescent starts by analysing the Romantics of the 19th century, who saw the Iberian Peninsula as a fantasy world full of characters from Don Quixote and Lazarillo de Tormes. Later visitors to Barcelona included Parisian bohemians such as Arthur Cravan, Francis Picabia and André Breton, who projected the surrealist atmosphere of Montmartre onto the city. This Barcelona of contrasts, centred around El Raval, attracted adventurous writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, who saw it as a setting given to excesses, rebellion and social critique.

With the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, the city became a symbol of resistance and repression, often portrayed from exile. In novels such as André Pieyre de Mandiargues’s La Marge [translated into English as The Margin], Claude Simon’s Le Palace [The Palace], Mathias Énard’s Carrer Robadors and Grégoire Polet’s Barcelona!, the city is one of the main characters, vibrant and contradictory. Barcelona emerges as a bustling city, a symbol of progress always on the verge of catching fire.

“In French-language novels, Barcelona is perceived as an effervescent city, always ready to show its true nature. Depending on the period and the historical events, the city can be magical, full of light, violent, modern, avant-garde...” writes author Ricard Ripoll in the introduction to the book.