La Colmena

There are reasons to believe that Camilo Jose Cela knew perfectly well what he was doing as he wrote, between 1945 and 1950, «La colmena», a novel that would counterweight the positive image the Franco regime was striving to build. In his foreword to the first edition Cela justifies and describes his text as a «pale reflection ... a humble shadow of the daily, harsh, deep and painful reality.» His portrait of a sad and desperate Madrid immediately drew the attention of the censors: the nove...