Description
Book SynopsisThe Forging of a Rebel is an unsurpassed account of Spanish history and society from early in the twentieth century through the cataclysmic events of the Spanish Civil War. Arturo Barea's masterpiece charts the author's coming-of-age in a bruised and starkly unequal Spain. These three volumes recount in lively detail Barea's daily experience of his country as it pitched toward disaster: we are taken from his youthful play and rebellion on the streets of Madrid, to his apprenticeship in the business world and to the horrors he witnessed as part of the Spanish army in Morocco during the Rif War. The trilogy culminates in an indelible portrait of the Republican fight against Fascist forces in which the Madrid of Barea's childhood becomes a shell and bullet-strewn warzone. Combining historical sweep and authority with poignant characterization and novelistic detail, The Forging of a Rebel is a towering literary and historical achievement.
Trade Review“This is an exceptional book.”
—George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984
“One of the great autobiographies of the twentieth century.”
—New Republic
“One of the most significant Spanish prose works of [the 20th] century . . . Moving and dramatic.”
—New York Review of Books
“Perhaps the most definitive and personal account of [Spain's] history during the first four decades of the 20th century.”
—Guardian
“As essential to an understanding of twentieth-century Spain as the reading of Tolstoy is indispensable to the comprehension of nineteenth-century Russia.”
—Daily Telegraph
