The Catalans: A Novel

Book Description

A dark story of love and betrayal set against the brilliant colors of the Catalan country in southern France.

This novel, long out of print, is a powerful successor to Testimonies, Patrick O'Brian's first novel written for adults. It is set in that corner of France that became O'Brian's adopted home, where the long dark wall of the Pyrenees runs headlong to meet the Mediterranean. Alan Roig returns to Saint-Féliu after years in the East, and finds his family in crisis. His dour, middle-aged cousin Xavier, mayor and most powerful citizen of the town, has fallen in love and plans to marry the young daughter of the local grocer. The Roig family property is threatened by this union, and Madeleine's relatives object on different grounds.

Xavier is a tragic figure, damned by what he perceives as a lack of feeling; Madeleine is to be his salvation. Unfortunately she does not return his affection, and as the feasts and harvest festivals of Saint-Féliu are played out, she finds herself falling in love with Alain.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating view of a master honing his skills.......2007-08-24

This is a fascinating work. Not a casual read. You have to be prepared to let yourself sink into many lengthy "descriptive" passages about that corner of southern France where the east end of the Pyrenees officially marks the Spanish border. The Catalan world and language bridge the nations, and O'Brian is clearly enthralled by them.

The plot is outlined in other reviews: the story of Alain Roig, the middle-aged learned doctor returning from a long stay in the Far East to the Catalan town of his birth, in response to a summons to help in a huge family issue, and how it plays out to everyone's surprise and probably the family's initial dismay, though as one puts the book down one can consider that they will probably feel it was for the best - except unhappy Xavier.

Mostly, the plot is a framework for O'Brian to create an in-depth exploration of some unusual and troubling states of the human heart, and to develop, try out, aspects of writing technique. Xavier's night-long soliloquy about his frightening lack of true emotion, his dismay at being inhumanly cold in situations that seem to demand a wrenching involvement, is a kind of tour-de-force in both respects.

Some little things amusingly foreshadow the Aubrey-Maturin series: the experiment with switching from regular narrative form, to scripting as in plays: "XAVIER: (some statement) ALAIN: the reply)." He uses this when there is a sustained interchange between two people, just to get away from the monotonous "Xavier said...Alain replied..." And this foreshadows the point in one of the A-M series which many critics have tut-tutted about, where someone has a musical instrument and O'Brian just writes "Plays." exactly like a stage-direction.

Then there is the performer clad in the skin of a bear, foreshadowing Jack's Aubrey's perilous escape through France to Spain. Again ,this is something that has been criticized as being too far-fetched: I think O'Brian just didn't want to waste a neat idea. Of course, the references to Alain's life in Prabang clearly foreshadow the East Indies episodes of A-M. Then, too, the beautiful Madeleine gives a glimpse of Diana Villiers: "..she moved with incredible distinction...Her fine head poised....She was in spirits too, that brilliant day..." O'Brian really admires grace in movement, mentioned many and many a time about Diana, for whom the most apt adjective would always be "spirited." (Though Madeleine is unlike Diana in other ways.)

The one thing that is completely lacking, in comparison with A-M, is any touch of humor. This story addresses itself to its characters and its settings with full seriousness. One would never, from this book, expect the overflowing, bubbling yet quiet wit that so totally pervades the A-M series. He must have mellowed by then.

Do not read this book if you are one of the many reviewers here who complain that books are "too long" or "too slow-moving," but if you like immersing yourself in an amazingly detailed world of people and place, you will enjoy it. But four stars, because I have to admit, in some ways the writing could be called a little self-indulgent.

A rich novel of dark shades.......2007-07-05

For Patrick O'Brian's many fans of the towering nineteen novels of the Jack Aubrey series, the republication of The Catalans is an opportunity to get a different view some of the building blocks which in the series found their finest expression. The Catalan culture he paints so vividly, and the personalities and reflections of Xavier and Alain, the principal characters, representing aspects of O'Brians own character, resonate throughout with chords that are heard woven into the Aubrey books, but it must be said that whereas in the Aubrey series they are leavened with fine story telling, naval scholarship and above all wit, The Catalans is an altogether more introspective preparatory interlude.

Do not read this novel for a fast-moving adventure. But read it nonetheless, for there is much that is fine here. Xavier is a memorable, if off-putting, creature, and Alain's reflections have the immediacy of autobiography which adds some fascination. O'Brian's women are as always two dimensional creations which will continue to deny him a large appreciative female readership, but his descriptive passages are as wonderful as anything in his oeuvre, and The Catalans will haunt you long after you replace it on your shelf.

A great novel.......2006-10-18

After having read most (but not all) of the naval historical novels of P.O'Brian, this book a very good and pleasant surprise. I did certainly like all of Maturin's and Aubrey's novels, but this is a much more profound immersion into human nature, feelings and behavior. The descriptions of the main actors and of the old style "Mediterranean" families around them (sorry for the previous real "Catalan" reviewer, this novel could have been written around the geographical details of many other corners facing this sea) are extremely well constructed and give a good and faithful picture of the culture and traditions of families around this region.
What could otherwise be a fairly trivial love story is used as a pretext to explore the deep feelings, the emotions and the driving forces of two very different men. Some pages reminded me somehow of the magical atmosphere in Sandor Marai's "Embers", certainly the long dialog at night between the two protagonists is very evocative in this sense. If you liked Marai's book, I am confident that you will enjoy this one.

CATALUNYA is not in France.......2006-01-16

The Amazon review reads that this novel "is set in that corner of France that became O'Brian's adopted home". I am sorry, but that is not true. I am Catalan and my country is not in any corner of France. It is located in the North East of the Iberic Peninsula, in Spain. San Feliu de Guíxols, one of the towns appearing in that book, is located in Catalunya. In 1659, with the Pyrinees Treatment, Spain gave the North of Catalonia to France. That part of Catalonia, today in France, is beyond the Pyrinees (Perpinyà, Cotlliure, etc.). But most part of Catalunya is in Spain today. Catalunya is a nation, despite the Spaniards are oppresing us, they steal our money, humiliate our language and culture, and don't let us be what we are. Someday we'll be free again! Thanks and God bless Catalunya and the US.
Oh, by the way ... good book!

Alexandre De Riquer, 1856-1920 (Anglo-Catalan Society Occasional Publications S.)

Average customer rating:

Alexandre De Riquer, 1856-1920 (Anglo-Catalan Society Occasional Publications S.)
Eliseu Trenc Ballester , Alan Yates , and Eliseu Trenc Ballester
Manufacturer: Anglo-Catalan Society Occasional Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0950713740

Escribir la catalanidad : Lengua e identidades culturales en la narrativa contemporánea de Cataluña (Monografías A) (Monografías A)

Average customer rating:

Escribir la catalanidad : Lengua e identidades culturales en la narrativa contemporánea de Cataluña (Monografías A) (Monografías A)
Stewart King
Manufacturer: Tamesis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Product Description

This study, charting the construction of a Catalan identity from the nineteenth-century cultural renaissance until the present day, explores the interaction of language, culture and identity in contemporary Catalonia. Drawing on postcolonial and multicultural literary theories, it argues that Castilian- and Catalan-language narratives are expressions of the same culture. Through detailed analyses of texts by Terenci Moix, Francisco Candel, Ignasi Riera, Montserrat Roig, Juan Marsé, Ramon Pallicé, and Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, among others, the author demonstrates that such writers share similar preoccupations and points of view and also engage in a complex literary and cultural dialogue that cuts across the established linguistic divisions that characterise cultural politics in Catalonia. The Catalan literary establishment's exclusion of Castilian as a language capable of expressing 'Catalan-ness' is challenged and the author proposes redefining traditional understandings of Catalan literature to take into account texts produced by all members of Catalan society.

La Segona Mort de Shakespeare (Colleció Clàssica)

Average customer rating:

La Segona Mort de Shakespeare (Colleció Clàssica)

Manufacturer: Columna
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 8483008408

Product Description

Una magnífica novella en què un dels misteris més apassionants de la història de la literatura pren cos en una trama ordida de passions amoroses, enveges professionals i fanatismes letals.

Language, the Novelist, and National Identity in Post-Franco Catalonia (Legenda)

Average customer rating:

Language, the Novelist, and National Identity in Post-Franco Catalonia (Legenda)
Kathryn Crameri
Manufacturer: Legenda
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Kathryn Crameri reveals some of the complex responses of writers and literary critics to the new possibilities for the expression of the Catalan identities which resulted from Spain's transition from dictatorship to democracy. The study begins by considering the cultural and political context of the Catalan novel from the 'Renaixenca' to the present day, and then offers a detailed analysis of novels by four very different writers - Montserrat Roig, Manuel de Pedrolo, Juan Marse (who writes in Spanish) and Biel Mesquida - all of whom seem to share an underlying thematic preoccupation with both individual and national 'transitions' and the intricate relationship between language and identity. These writers challenge institutionalized visions of the link between Catalanism, the Catalan language and Catalan literature, and offer a more pluralistic and personalized version of what it is to call oneself a Catalan.

Moveable Margins: The Narrative Art of Carme Riera

Average customer rating:

Moveable Margins: The Narrative Art of Carme Riera

Manufacturer: Bucknell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 083875399X

On Our Own Behalf: Women's Tales from Catalonia (European Women Writers)

Average customer rating:

On Our Own Behalf: Women's Tales from Catalonia (European Women Writers)

Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0803231229

Reflection in Sequence: Novels by Spanish Women, 1944-1988

Average customer rating:

Reflection in Sequence: Novels by Spanish Women, 1944-1988
Sandra J. Schumm
Manufacturer: Bucknell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Tirant lo Blanc: New Approaches (Monografías A)

Average customer rating:

Tirant lo Blanc: New Approaches (Monografías A)

Manufacturer: Tamesis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In Don Quixote, Cervantes describes Tirant lo Blancas `the best book in the world'. A remarkable work of fiction, probably the finest to appear anywhere in Europe before Rabelais, it has recently become increasingly familiar to English readers. However, it is a problematic book to categorise: on the one hand, it is an exciting story of Tirant's military exploits and his love for the Princess Carmesina; on the other, it is an encyclopedic work treating many aspects of late fifteenth-century society in vivid detail. The essays collected in this volume offer a variety of fresh interpretations. They cover a vast amount of material, from questions of authorship to close readings of particular episodes, bringing a varietyof new interpretations to bear. ARTHUR TERRY is Emeritus Professor of Literature at the University of Essex. Contributors: RAFAEL BELTRAN, JOSEP GUIA, THOMAS R. HART, ALBERT G. HAUF, JEREMY LAWRANCE, MONTSERRAT PIERA, JOSEP PUJOL, JESUS D. RODRIGUEZ VELASCO, MARIA JESUS RUBIERA Y MATA, ARTHUR TERRY, CURT WITTLIN

Women Write Back: Contemporary Irish and Catalan Stories

Average customer rating:

Women Write Back: Contemporary Irish and Catalan Stories
Irene Boada-Montagut
Manufacturer: Irish Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Linguistics | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Set against the starkly beautiful landscape of Cornwall, PENMARRIC is the totally enthralling saga of a family divided against itself. At the center of the novel is the great mansion called Penmarric. It is to Penmarric that Mark Castallack, a proud, strange, and sensitive man, brings his bride Janna--the first act in a tempestuous drama that was to span three generations....

Customer Reviews:

Unforgettable and groundbreaking.......2005-05-15

This was Howatch's first major novel and despite similar titles that she wrote later - cashelmara and wheel of fortune etc - it still remains her best. Fans of Howatch will know that her trademark is the first-person narrator as well as having several different characters narrate in a book. Her gift as a storyteller lies in the reader identifying with each narrator. Just as you feel disappointed that one character's narration has ended, you find that the next character's narration is just as good. Basically you can identify with several disparate characters with various motivations. Another trademark is the parallels between the lives of her characters and famous historical personages - specifically British royalty. To those who have yet to discover Susan Howatch - I envy you!

Worth Your Time.......2005-05-05

As a senior this year, we have to do a book review project. I have never been very excited about reading for school projects. I picked the book only because I would get more points for having a long book. At first, I was going to find different summaries for the projects, while reading only parts of the book. However, as I began to read, I found the story to be dull, but anxious to read on and find out more about the main characters.

As I read, I found myself going back and reading pages over and over, learning more than I knew or understood before. Susan Howatch has done a wonderful job with developing her characters. She uses her characters to develop the plot. The author explores issues like "Honor and Dishonor" through her characters which symbolize the issues themselves. Through out the story, the characters are embroiled in their family problems of love and heat with Penmarric at the center of everyone's actions. The book is separated into different sections by changing family characters and using their viewpoints. The switch in characters doesn't distract you but adds a continuous flow and a constant beat to the storyline.

Another intriguing aspect is the series of references used to compare characters, like Mark Castallack and Janna Roslyn, with famous historical people like Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine. One of their sons', Philip, mimics Richard the Lionhearted. The author also does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting the wealthy and poor. Mark is from a wealthy working-class family in Cornwall and Jana is the daughter of a fisherman from St. Ives. The character I had the most sympathy for was Jan-Yves.

She writes the story in a multi-character first-person structure sets it in Cornwall. The storyline begins in 1890 and goes on to span the intervening years till WWII. The story spans three generations beginning with Mark's childhood, and ends with his youngest child's adulthood. The story is set in various parts of England and begins in 1890 and spans the years until World War II. It highlights many life lessons, human struggles, and family problems where nothing is black or white, life isn't always fair, and past mistakes can have cause problems on future generations. The Boston Globe review states: "Penmarric is filled with life-long hatreds, secret love-affairs, and stolen inheritances."

Many people believe Susan Howatch wrote this book as a religious aspect. However, I find that hard to believe since she didn't come from a religious background. In my opinion Susan Howatch wrote Penmarric to tell her own family saga. I recommend this book to everyone!

I must have read this five or six times!.......2004-12-06

This is a book that I bought years ago when I was looking for something trashy and escapist. I think it was the cover art on the edition I bought that led me to believe it would be a typical historical bodice ripper, or something of that sort.

Instead, it was a book I kept going back to again and again because of the character development, the writing and the plot. I really connected with the characters and the story.

The author separates the book into sections, changes viewpoints from one character to the next, and explores things like "Virtue" and "Justice" through the eyes of whichever character is focused on that issue. Throughout the book, though, the main character is clearly Janna, the family matriarch, and each of the characters rotates around her and her life over the course of decades.

The switch in character viewpoint is not distracting at all, in fact, it increased my sympathy for everyone in the book. I had my favorite (the neglected and unloved child Jan-Yves - the one focused on "justice" - who grew up to be funny and delightful), while other people I know who read the book had theirs.

It's an easy enough read to work well on the beach, but it isn't a throw-away book at all. And it certainly isn't trashy. It's absorbing throughout, and I highly recommend it.

Excellent Epic........2002-03-05

Wow! What an engrossing novel to read! This was the first Susan Howatch novel I've read, but it certainly won't be the last. The scope and cast of characters is simply huge, and yet is handled in a manner that you're never confused as to what is happening. The way that the author changes narrators five times during the course of the book is fabulous! Just as fabulous is the way that the plot and characters mimic true English history during the 12th to 13th centuries, with some tinkering and creative license, of course! Mark mimics Henry II, Janna mimics Eleanor of Acquitaine, Philip mimics Richard the Lionheart, ect. Overall, the story is a very human struggle where nothing is black and white, life isn't always fair, and the past mistakes of others can have massive ramifications on future generations. This is not the type of novel that can be read in a single sitting, but if you're looking for a passionate and intelligent story that will make you think, I highly recommend Penmarric.

worth many re-reads.......2001-12-03

Penmarric was the third Howatch novel I read, and the one that got me hooked on her. The first was "Sins of the Fathers", which I liked very much and so, a few years later, I read its prequel, the Rich are Different, which I also enjoyed. But it was only after coming across Penmarric - completely by accident - that I woke up and took notice. Since reading this book I have gone on to read every single one of her following novels - thirteen in all, in succession!
From the first page I was engrossed in the characters. The story begins with Mark, a rather dour man, who falls in love with Janna, a woman several years his senior. These are the two central figures of the novel, which later moves on to the next generation. Howatch proves herself to be a master storyteller with the ability to get under the skin of her characters in such a way that the reader can identify with them completely - a very rare talent. Her multi-character first-person structure enables us to see the unfolding story through the eyes of five characters in turn, and it is quite amazing how a character whom one has disliked when he or she was seen through the eyes of previous narrator suddenly takes on completely new dimensions when he/she comes on central stage. I know of no writer who does this as well as Howatch.
The story is set in Cornwall and begins in 1890 and goes on to span the intervening years till WWII. It is a rich and multifaceted novel, well worth reading many times to discover all its layers, and a great novel for a group discussion. (...)

Average customer rating:

Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: Book Club Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Wheel of Fortune

ASIN: B000EHNCW2

Average customer rating:

Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Penmarric

Manufacturer: Fawcett Crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: Faw`
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: A Fawcett Crest Book/ Fawcett Publications Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

2 by Susan Howatch: Sins of the Fathers; Penmarric

Average customer rating:

2 by Susan Howatch: Sins of the Fathers; Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: Fawcett Crest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

PENMARRIC--Set against the beautiful landscape of Cornwall, this book is the totally enthralling saga of a family divided against itself.SINS OF THE FATHERS--This is the tumultuouse novel of men and women pitted against a world of wealth, pwer, and privilege.

Average customer rating:

Die Erben von Penmarric.
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: Goldmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

German | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All German Books | German | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 3442425786

Average customer rating:

Penmarric
Susan Howatch
Manufacturer: FAWCETT CREST
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W4C2QY

Average customer rating:

Penmarric

Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books