Solitude - Hardcover

Catala, Victor

4

1,590 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0930523911 ISBN 13: 9780930523916

Publisher: UNKNO, 1992

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Catala, Victor

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Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Catalan

Review:

Beautiful, industrious, and intelligent Camilla is taken to an isolated hermitage in the Pyrenees by her lazy and insensitive husband, Matias. There she contends not only with her rapidly failing marriage but with her attraction to her young neighbor Arnau; her growing admiration and respect for the older shepherd named Gaieta; and the violent intentions of the bestial Anima. Through Gaieta's guidance, Camilla finds strength and a sense of self in the mountains: "Forcing her to gaze over every steep precipice, teaching her how to twist her body and secure her footing in dangerous spots, making her look down when they were halfway up a cliff and laughing at her terror, he helped conquer her fears ... And now she loved the excitement she felt on those peaks and the way the yawning depths seemed to suck her soul out of her." Faced with debt, deprivation, and violence, she must make choices for and ultimately by herself. While Caterina Albert i Paradis had little choice but to use a male pseudonym, she wrote Solitude from an intensely feminine viewpoint, delving deeply into the thoughts and emotions of a young woman caught by circumstance. It has been called "the most important Catalan novel to appear before the Spanish Civil War," when Franco took power and outlawed the Catalan language for more than thirty-five years. To find it translated into English and in print may be more remarkable still. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister

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