I’ve never liked reading more than one book at a time, and so its not been particularly easy to interrupt my current book to return to Don Quixote which I am reading over the course of ten weeks.  However, I soon get back into the tales of the valiant [...]]]> Reading two books at a time

I’ve never liked reading more than one book at a time, and so its not been particularly easy to interrupt my current book to return to Don Quixote which I am reading over the course of ten weeks.  However, I soon get back into the tales of the valiant knight and his exploits with his servant Sancho Panza.

This week’s reading in Don Quixote covers pages 276 to 368.  I am reading the book in ten chunks of about 90 pages each, and this is chunk number four.

Untangling a mistaken coupling

This week we read of two pairs of lovers, previously mis-matched, now reorganising themselves so they are in the correct pairs!  Don Quixote has little part in this, it being left to the noble Don Fernando to be persuaded of the rightness of the new arrangements – after all, he was to get the lovely Dorotea who his associates assured him was unequalled among women, humble, beautiful, virtuous and loved him greatly.  Who could resist?

The war against the wineskins

Meanwhile our brave Don Quixote persisted with the belief that he had resolved the amorous confusion by doing battle with two huge wineskins containing about 18 gallons (about 70) litres) of wine believing it to be a giant.

Sancho Panza

The company resolve to carry on with their strategy of deceiving Don Quixote in order to persuade him to travel to his home town where they may be able to cure him of his madness.  However, it is too late in the day to journey on that day, and so all decide to spend another night at the inn.

A traveller arrives at the inn, a Christian who has been travelling in Moorish lands, and with him is a beautiful Moorish woman, Lela Maria.

Is it better to work in an office or to join the army?

However, perhaps the most interesting section in this week’s reading is Don Quixote’s discourse on whether it is better to be a man of letters or a man of arms.  De Cervantes does not hesitate in regaling his readers with the thoughts of Don Quixote on these matters.  And as his audience around the table were military men they apparently approved of his arguments – de Cervantes readers may think otherwise.

In typical contrariwise logic, Don Quixote declares that peace is the true purpose of war, but at least he comes out against the escalation of the arms trade -

Happy were those blessed times that lacked the horrifying fury of the diabolical instuments of artillery, whose inventor, in my opinion, is in hell, receiving the reward for his accursed invention, which allows an ignoble and cowardly hand to take the life of a valiant knight, so that not knowing how it comes, or from where, a stray shot is fired into the courage and spirit that inflame and animate a brave heart.

Alas, in those early days they were just beginning to understand that progress in the technology of war is unstoppable, for gaining an advantage of your enemy is the only way to guarantee victory.  It was about as useless for Don Quixote to protest at the use of artillery as it is to protest today about the use of phosphorous bombs.

The rest of the evening is taken up with the tale of the traveller who had been held captive by the Turks – a topic which must have been close to de Cervantes heart for he himself had been held captive for five years.

I’ve pulled out three themes from this week’s reading:

Wilderness

Spain is a country of mountain ranges and high sierras and in [...]]]> Well, that’s about 280 pages of adventuring with Don Quixote so far. Fortunately, Miguel de Cervantes has turned out to be the writer everyone says he is and my interest has been held.

I’ve pulled out three themes from this week’s reading:

Wilderness

Spain is a country of mountain ranges and high sierras and in the 16th century it wasn’t difficult to get off the track and find yourself in a place only inhabited by lonely goat-herds and the creatures of wild places (wolves are mentioned but I think these were the Iberian wolf which is less dangerous to humans than some other varieties).   In the Gospels, the mad man who had enough devils cast out of him to drive a herd of pigs over a cliff wandered in the wild places.  The wilderness is a place of lunatics and mad adventurers, which must make it hard to those who have to scrape a living in those places by hunting animals or tending goats.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza travel through the wilderness while fleeing retribution for freeing a group of convicts destined to become galley slaves.   They meet a  young man with lacerations all over his body and wearing ragged clothes.  His tale seems lucid enough – the Duke’s son he served had stolen his beloved Luscinda from him by trickery.  But while he started his tale with sanity, a fit of madness came over him half way through, causing him to throw a rock at Don Quixote then beat Sancho to the ground and jump up and down on his ribs.

Pointless suffering

This might seem to be a good reason to return to something resembling civilisation, but not so Don Quixote.  He decides that madness may have something going for it after all. Did not brave knights of old go mad through thwarted love?  Should not Don Quixote prove his love for the Lady Dulcinea by also spending a period of madness?   Sancho, with his unerring desire to prick the bubbles of Don Quixote’s fancies says,

“It seems to me that the knights who did these things were provoked and had a reason to do senseless things and penances; but what reason does your grace have for going crazy?  What lady has scorned you, and what signs have you found to tell you that my lady Dulcinea of Toboso has done anything foolish with a Moor or a Christian?”

Don Quixote with his usual perverted logic replies,

“Therein lied the virtue and the excellence of my enterprise, for a knight errant deserves neither glory nor thanks if he goes mad for a reason.  The great achievement is to lose one’s reason for no reason, and to let my lady know that if I can do this without cause, what would I do if there were a cause?”

Illustration 3 for Miguel de Cervantes’s “Don Quixote“ by Gustave Doré,

And so Sancho is despatched to Lady Dulcinea with a letter asking her to confirm her love for him or to deny it, if the former, thus ending his time of torment, or if the latter, thus allowing him to end his life forthwith.  As always, Cervantes shows how human weakness interferes with the best laid plans, for Sancho loses the letter (actually forgetting to take it with him in the first place!).

Perhaps this doesn’t matter all that much for he is able to recreate the bones of it with the help of a priest and a barber who he meets at an inn, and in any case, he knows the “Lady Dulcinea” rather well as a village girl as strong as the brawniest lad in the village and with a voice that can carry for half a league – and a reputation for being a bit of a trollop.

Pointless adventuring (again!)

Some people have Don Quixote’s well-being at heart.  The priest and barber who Sancho meets at the inn decide to try to end Don Quixote’s fake madness by deceiving him into leaving the wilderness and heading for home.  They travel with Dorotea, another betrayed lover, and tell Don Quixote that she is a princess who is in need of some brave knight to restore her kingdom to her – a perfect bait for Don Quixote, who is never able to resist a challenge like that.  And by chance, the route to the Princess’s lands passes through his home village.  Perhaps the priest and the barber will be able to hijack him there and compel him to give up his mad wanderings?  We shall see.

All images are in the public domain

Now on to today’s book, Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal.   Spanish Catalonia has a very distinctive culture of its own, with its own language, Catalonian, and many [...]]]> Thanks to everyone who visited while I was away in Germany.  I did a lot of reading and have taken plenty of notes for future reviews.

Now on to today’s book, Stone in a Landslide by Maria Barbal.   Spanish Catalonia has a very distinctive culture of its own, with its own language, Catalonian, and many traditions and festivals unique to the region.  I have long had an interest in the Pyrenees, not least because of the folk songs adapted for guitar by Miguel Llobet, and recently made popular by Catalan musicians like Toti Soler and Ester Formosa.  If any readers have Spotify on their computer, then I would recommend listening to the album L’Arxiver De Tortosa, particularly songs like La Filadora (The Spinner) and Rossinyol (The Cuckoo).  You will rapidly get a good impression of difficulties for an English speaker of the Catalonian language!

It was a pleasure to read Stone in a Landslide, the ficitional life-story of a Catalonian woman living in a village deep in the Pyrenees.  The author, Maria Barbal, is a highly regarded Catalan writer and I can only admire the translators Laura McGloughlin and Paul Mitchell who have done such a good job of translating the harsh tones of this difficult language into sparse but elegant English.  The translation was supported by a grant from the Institut Ramon Llull who support the translation of works from original Catalan

The story is told in the first person by Conxa (real name Concepcion but whose family evidently needed something shorter in a noisy household to call out to one of their six children).  Conxa is now an old lady of 80 and looks back on her life, reflecting on the events that shaped her and reluctantly accepting what has been a difficult journey for her.  The voice the author gives her is totally convincing and changes through the book reflecting the innocence of childhood, the griefs and suffering of the years of the Civil War and the resignation of an old woman far from happy with life in the modern world.

The world of the small farmer in the early 20th century was constrained by a constant battle with the land.  Large families meant a gang of potential helpers but also mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. At the age of eleven, the demands of six growing children living on one small farm are sufficient for Conxa’s parents to send here to live with her aunt and uncle.  They do not live a great distance away, but far enough to make home visits almost an impossibility for the busy families struggling to make a living from their small farms.

Village life is far from being a rural idyll.  As with all small communities, gossip is rife, and a new member of the community, however young, is not immediately accepted.  Aunt Tia has no hesitation in using Conxa in the way she would her own daughter, which means life in the fields tending for crops and livestock.  The struggles of rural life run through the book:

We’d spend the afternoon turning the green grass in Tres Aigues.  It was getting dark.  The breeze made a restless sound through the nearby hazel trees.  I heard Oncle’s whistle and I picked up my my headscarf and felt the sweat burning the roots of my hair.  When I took the scarf off I head all sorts of sounds, above all the noise of the flies. I ran to the cart as fast as I could but waited for Tia before I got in as she had stayed to close the gate.  While I stood there, I looked at the land divided up into small irregular plots. I thought even the richest man here is still very poor.

As Conxa grows into her teens, she gains the attention of families who are looking for a wife for their sons.  Romance has little to do with this, for,

What happens when the potential bride and groom visit each other?  Some time is spent in the dining room and dowries are discussed, the best sausage and a porró of wine are brought out.  Then left alone, the couple say a few things to each other full of timidity and awkwardness.  Its a purchase like any other, but things that can’s be measureed come into it too.  A person is too much to be bought and too little to live as he pleases . . .

Conxa however is able to marry for love.  Jaume, the son of a blacksmith courts her and is reluctantly accepted by her aunt and uncle in exchange for his help on the farm, the renovation of their house, and all the money he earns. Strangely he seems happy to accept, and moves into to live with Conxa, a young family soon following to fill the spare rooms in the farm-house.

Sant Climent de Taüll (by Ainhoa Pcb)

At this point the book takes a harrowing turn, for King Alfonso abdicates and the Republic is declared.  The Civil War soon reaches the village and Jaume, who has now been appointed Justice of the Peace finds himself in the front-line.  I will not go on to describe the story for fear of spoiling it for others, it contains scenes of drama, loss and unexpected deliverance.  Conxa’s life follows the course of so many people who find their world changing around them, and we see her cope with the marriage of her son to a woman who turns out to be no friend to her, and the realisation that peasant life can no longer be sustained in the modern world.

This is a short novel (only 108 pages) but covers a vast amount of ground.  The chapters are short, and its not difficult to imagine the elderly Conxa writing a short passage each day as she looks back on her life.  The wisdom of age does not always lead to calm reflection and the anger and bitterness of some of the episodes has not been lessened by the years (but how could such painful events ever be soothed?).  However, there are many descriptive passages which lift the heart and much fascinating detail about rural life in the Pyrenees.

The book is beautifully presented by Peirene Press with fold-in covers and clear typesetting.  As a keen supporter of translations into English from other European languages, particularly the less well-known ones, I welcome this publication which joins such a small number of other Catalan books available to English speakers.

Title:  Stone in a Landslide
Author:   Maria Barbal
Publication:   Peirene Press (2010), Paperback, 108 pages
ISBN: 9780956284013

The photograph of the church at Sant Clement de Taull is by flickr user Ainoha Pcb and licensed under Creative Commons