The City of Marvels - Softcover

Mendoza, Eduardo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671702343 ISBN 13: 9780671702342

Publisher: Pocket Books, 1990

Synopsis

Onofre Bouvila, an ambitious young peasant, travels to Barcelona in the late nineteenth century, where he becomes a wealthy man via baldness cures, burglary, land speculation, film production, arms smuggling and international finance

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

From Publishers Weekly

Barcelona, chief city of Catalonia (historically a hotbed of anarchist and separatist activity) plays the role of a magical, protean character in this sprightly novel, a bestseller in Spain. The action spans the years between Barcelona's two economically disastrous World's Fairs of 1888 and 1929. Young Onofre Bouvila ventures from his parents' provincial farm to work in the city, where he begins his political involvement by distributing revolutionary pamphlets on the fairgrounds. Aided by the giant Efren, he becomes a con-man who sells hair oil, serves underworld boss Don Humbert, arranges for rivals to be bumped off, and marries the Don's lovely daughter, Margarita. But Onofre, a driven tycoon who becomes an arms smuggler, cannot forget his first love, an adoring, wretchedly skinny anarchist named Delfina. Nor can he resolve his feelings for his fathercalled the americano since his return from a trip to Cuba with a white suit, a monkey and fraudulent schemes. Unfortunately, the characterization remains opaque, though the novel entertains and informs with its panorama of Catalan politics and social life, the advent of cinema and flying machines, and amusing cameos of Rasputin and Mata Hari.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0671702343
• ISBN 13: 9780671702342
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 418