CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 9: 85-100 (2016) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.123 · ISSN: 2013-407X http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/ The historical novel in Catalonia (1862-1930) Jordi Tiñena* Writer Received 20 January 2015 · Accepted 10 March 2015 Abstract When the first voices of the Renaixença began to be heard in the 1930s, the historical romance novel was triumphant in Europe. How- ever, the Catalan novel, which had reached a high level in the Middle Ages with the Joanot Martorell work Tirant lo Blanc, had practi- cally disappeared and Catalan novelists were writing in Spanish. The first novel of the Renaixença, inspired by the model of Walter Scott, was not published until 1862. Thus began the process of reviving the Catalan novel, with the core being the historical novel in all its different variations. Keywords: historical novel, Catalan literature, Renaixença, Romanticism, Catalanism At the start of the 19th century, the European novel was between 1882 and 1902, and it is anodyne in relation to the experiencing one of its most fertile times thanks to Walter topic at hand. The third period encompasses Modernisme, Scott; the genre was being updated with the introduction Noucentisme and the avant-gardes between 1902 and of a kind of story which we call the historical novel, which 1930, when the Catalan historical novel, though obsolete, would prove to have a decisive influence throughout al- survived with more trouble than vigour.2 most the entire century. For example, Alessandro Manzo- ni, James Fenimore Cooper, Chateaubriand, Alfred de Vi- gny, Victor Hugo, August Flaubert, Alexandre Dumas and The European models in the appearance Balzac all wrote historical novels. In Spain, the historical of the Catalan historical novel novel was ushered in by the Manresa native Ramon López Soler, who in 1830 published Los bandos de Castilla o el Georg Lukács3 has revealed that the period spanning from caballero del cisne, whose prologue is a commendation of 1789 to 1814 was full of stirrings all over Europe, and that it Scott. However, while the novel was the most prominent should be regarded as the key to understanding the move- literary genre around the world, the Catalan novel re- ments that were developing. The product of this upheaval mained silent; the literary tradition had dried up, novelists was the complex phenomenon of Romanticism. Here I only wrote in Spanish and readers read in Spanish. want to stress two aspects of Romanticism that are extreme- In this article, I shall cover the time period spanning ly important when studying the historical novel. The first from 1862 until the end of the Primo de Rivera dictator- was the awakening of the national spirit, which happened all ship, which I have further subdivided into three periods. over Europe as a consequence of the French Revolution and The first, proposed by Antònia Tayadella,1 encompasses the Napoleonic Wars. The second, which also stemmed the novel of the Renaixença, from 1862 to 1882. These two from the new order which arose after the fall of the Ancien dates are quite revealing: 1862 is when the first Catalan Régim, which has been called the evasion in time, is Roman- historical novel, Antoni de Bofarull’s L’Orfeneta de Men- ticism’s break with the present. Broad swaths of the popula- argues o Catalunya agonitzant, appeared, while the latter tion’s discovery or rediscovery of their own national identi- corresponds to the publication of La Papallona by Narcís ty found support sustained on knowledge of their own Oller, an author who ushered in a new era within the 19th- history and on customs and folklore. On the other hand, the century Catalan novel. It was the basic period of the his- evasion in time was a nostalgic look at a past sensed as safer torical novel with romantic roots and the restoration of and better and therefore as the negation of the present, or, to the Catalan novel, which, logically, I shall spotlight. The the contrary, as an affirmation and justification of this pre- second period covers the trends of realism and naturalism sent, giving rise to two ideological trends in Romantic litera- ture which shared the taste for history.4 These two factors led Romantics to take an interest in * Contact address: Jordi Tiñena. E-mail: [email protected] history, especially the Middle Ages. In this sense, while Catalan historical review_9.indb 85 08/06/2016 12:37:34 86 Cat. Hist. Rev. 9, 2016 Jordi Tiñena the exaltation of the individual is a staple of Romanticism, All of these kinds of historical novels were present when historicism can be viewed as the exaltation of this collec- the Catalan novel appeared in 1862. Were Catalan writers tive “self”, the self-squared in Ferreras’s expression.5 familiar with them? The historians of Catalan literature The historical novel stemmed from the very reality of Ro- who have examined the topic hold the conviction that the manticism. With a model that combined a passion for his- writers of the Renaixença had little literary training, yet it tory, local colour when re-creating customs and strong seems indisputable that they must have been familiar with emotions, Walter Scott garnered extraordinary success. Yet Walter Scott, as he had repeated success all over Europe. beyond the “local colour”, the picturesque and the portrayal His work entered Spain during the 1820s on the pages of of customs, the crux of the model can be found in the hu- the Barcelona magazine El Europeo. However, having ac- man behaviours within the historical reality depicted. This knowledged Scott’s influence, we should also note that by the is the core aspect worth noting. However, Scott’s novels also time Catalan novelists began writing historical novels, first in contain other elements whose goal is to arouse the readers’ Spanish and later in Catalan, all the trends in the historical attention and keep them curious (adventure, intrigue, mys- novel, including the serial, had reached Spain. And there- tery, etc.). And this soon evolved further: Hugo highlighted fore, at least theoretically, all the models were available. Ac- the social dimension and openly leaned toward the use of cording to information from Montesinos i Ferreras7 on the the novel as a means of judging reality; thus, in Notre Dame editions translated into Spanish between 1830 and 1860, the de Paris it is not too difficult to see the Paris of 1830 through most successful ones, in addition to Scott and the accepted the upheaval of 15th-century Paris. Alfred de Vigny is even influence of Manzoni, were the French serialists (Dumas, more explicit on ideological subjectivisation. In “Réflexions Sue, Soulié). And obviously it is no coincidence that when sur la vérité dans l’art”, the prologue to Cinq-Mars, he open- setting out to translate novels into Spanish, Catalan novelists ly defends the fact that the purpose of the historical novel is would choose works by these authors. For example, Antoni to seek the errors of the past in history. And the novel even de Bofarull translated Eugène Sue, Joaquim Salarich trans- drifted towards the extremes, as illustrated by Flaubert with lated Walter Scott and Victor Hugo, Francesc Pelai Briz Salammbô, which was set in the Carthage of the Punic translated Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, and Joaquim Wars, which is more than just a decorative escape with eru- Riera i Bertran translated Walter Scott’s Rob-Roy. dite, documented archaeological details. At the other ex- Ferreras estimates that between 1830 and 1870 a total treme are the novels on the Napoleonic Wars by Erckmann- of 567 historical novels were written in Spain, and he cal- Chatrian, Histoire d’un conscrit de 1813 and Waterloo, in culated that between 1870 and 1900 more than 100 au- which the exclusion of historical figures, even secondary thors of one or two novels could be counted. This figure is ones, and external history gives way instead to depicting the quite demonstrative of the atmosphere favourable to this personal experience of a common character. kind of novel throughout almost the entire century. We can also witness an evolution towards a split model And among these novelists in Spanish we should count between the present and history, with the accentuation of the Catalans, which added to this body of literature under the more novelesque elements. According to Maigron,6 this influence and writing in this language. At first, they despite its indisputable values, Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame did so with a variety of themes, some even directly drawn de Paris signals the start of this evolution. After Notre from Scott,8 but they soon incorporated the history of Dame de Paris, which somehow serves as a bridge be- Catalonia as fodder for their novels and showed clear tween Walter Scott’s model and the adventure novel, the signs of the Renaixença sensibility, even if they did not historical novel begins its decline with a kind of neglect of manage to resolve the language contradiction. some of the essential principles of the genre in favour of the development others that were secondary in Scott’s novels. Everything becomes more superficial: the dia- The romantic historical novel in Spanish logues are vivid but vacuous, and the external descrip- in Catalonia (1830-1860) tions are excessive at the expense of the interior lives of the characters, who are absorbed by the scenery. In short, Among the Catalan authors of historical novels, we should the triumph of colour and picturesqueness in this new particularly spotlight those who wrote historical novels in model is what ended up dominating the novel scene after Spanish, often on Catalan themes, those who promoted the the 1850s.