Winds of the Night (Catalan: ''El vent de la nit'') is a novel by the
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
author and publisher,
Joan Sales. It is set in a devastated and impoverished
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...
under the heel of the
Franco dictatorship
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
after the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. Its narrator is a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
priest who undergoes a major crisis of faith.
History of the novel
Winds of the Night was originally the fourth part of Joan Sales’ masterwork, ''Incerta Glòria'' (
Uncertain Glory). The novel was published in 1956 after having been initially rejected by the Francoist censor because it “expressed heretical ideas often in disgusting and obscene language”. Through different editions, Sales continued rewriting and adding to the text, always seeking to escape from the constraints of censorship. In 1971, the greatly expanded definitive version was published, in which the fourth part was entitled ''Últimes notícies'' (Latest News). In the 1981 edition of ''Incerta Glòria'', ''Últimes notícies'' had become ''El vent de la nit, novel.la'' (Winds of the Night, a novel). Finally, in 2012, on the centenary of Sales’ birth, it was published as a separate and self-contained book by his granddaughter, Maria Bohigas.
[Since 2005, she has been in charge of Club Editor, the publishing house her grandfather helped set up.]
Maria Bohigas later argued that Sales had recognised that the two novels had quite distinct tones and perspectives
[The timespan of ''Incerta Glòria'' is the three years of the Spanish Civil War, whereas that of ''El vent de la nit'' is a twenty year period up to 1969.] but was loath to separate them. In fact, in an interview not long before he died, Sales said that, what had been the fourth part of ''Incerta glòria'' should have been published later as a separate book but “I’m old now and it’s fine as it is”. It is also the case that separating the text into two novels brings ''Incerta Glòria'' to a dramatic end
[With the chaotic Republican retreat following the collapse of the Aragon front.] and perhaps therefore a more satisfactory conclusion.
Characters
Cruells
Cruells, a young student for the priesthood at the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he served on the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
side as a medical adjutant, returns from exile in a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
concentration camp for Republican refugees to complete his theological studies and be ordained, but he loses his faith. Cruells having served with the “reds” is an outsider in the Spain of
National Catholicism
National Catholicism (Spanish: ''nacionalcatolicismo'') was part of the ideological identity of Francoism, the political system through which the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco governed the Spanish State between 1939 and 1975. Its most vis ...
, where bishops give
fascist
Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...
salutes and force Catalan priests to preach in
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
.
[In 1937, the overwhelming majority of Spanish bishops signed a collective letter in support of Franco’s insurrection against the Spanish Second Republic.] Riven by doubt and despair in the face of the bloody horrors of the twentieth century dictatorships (Franco,
Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
,
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
…), he plumbs the depths of degradation by paying a prostitute for sex and then spending a fortnight with her and her pimp in their sordid flat. He escapes and returns to serve as a priest in the shanty towns on the outskirts of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, before being dispatched to a rural parish in the Catalan mountains because of his dissenting views.
Lamoneda
While Cruells was on the losing side in the Spanish Civil War, Lamoneda
[La moneda in Catalan translates as 'coin' and perhaps Lamoneda and Cruells are the two sides of the same deranged coin. This was suggested in an interview with Maria Bohigas on Spanish radio:
https://www.rtve.es/alacarta/audios/wonderland/wonderland-dissabte-13-juliol-2019/5335641/] worked as a
Falangist
Falangism ( es, falangismo) was the political ideology of two political parties in Spain that were known as the Falange, namely first the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS) and afterwards the Fal ...
fifth columnist
A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group or nation from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or another nation. According to Harris Mylonas
Harris Mylonas is Associate Professor of Political Science and Internat ...
and
agent provocateur
An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...
working in the Republican zone on behalf of Franco’s insurrectionists. However, he too is also an outsider, not having found his place in Franco’s post-war Spain. He raves about his sexual exploits, his “great” unpublished novels and his supposed friendship with
Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
.
[Heinrich Himmler visited Spain in October 1940 to discuss collaboration between the ]Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...
and Franco’s police and prepare the meeting between Franco and Hitler in the same month. Lamoneda claims that Himmler recognised him personally as a brilliant secret agent during the Civil War.
Juli Soleràs
Soleràs, Sales’s brilliant creation in ''Uncertain Glory'', is an enigmatic and provocative anti-hero, half-philosopher, half-cynic, who serves with the Republicans initially only to cross over to the fascists. As the war comes to a close, he attempts to quit the victors and return to the defeated side. Soleràs does not actually appear as a character in Winds of the Night, but he is very present in conversations between Cruells and Lamoneda. Cruells, who admires Solaràs’ crazed lucidity and considers him as his one and only friend, tries tenaciously to find out what happened to him at the end of the war.
Lluís de Broca
Lluís, a friend of both Soleràs and Cruells, served with the Republican forces in the Civil War and, following the Republican defeat, left Spain for
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, where he made a fortune producing pasta for soups. When he returns to Barcelona on visits, he stays in suites at the best hotels. He deceives his wife, Trini.
Trini
In Uncertain Glory, Cruells was in love with Trini, but he now says of her: “I loved the rebellious Trini of old a thousand times more, the Trini who refused to resign herself to her husband’s infidelities or the opium of a complaisant religion”.
Synopsis
The novel is narrated in the first person by Cruells (also the narrator of the third part of Uncertain Glory). It is structured around a series of meetings between Cruells and Lamoneda: in a café soon after the Civil War, in Lamoneda’s squalid flat during the
Barcelona tram strike in 1951, in the priest’s rural parish in the early 1960’s and finally in a hut hidden deep in a remote mountain forest in 1968. Despite himself, Cruells is lured into these meetings by his desire to discover the fate of his friend, Juli Soleràs.
Themes
Sales interlaces the vision of a defeated, humiliated and impoverished Catalonia under the Franco dictatorship with a priest’s loss of faith and his descent into the heart of darkness. Despite the horrors of the Civil War, Cruells (and in his own way Lamoneda) is nostalgic for those years: “And my guilty heart longs for that war and that woman. And my guilty heart still longs for my lost youth; I know I will never experience life like that again. ……. I was only fourteen but I will always remember that marvellous aroma of resurrection and hope.”
Historical references in the novel
* At the beginning of the novel, Cruells recounts the execution of
Lluís Companys
Lluís Companys i Jover (; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a Catalan politician who served as president of Catalonia from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
Companys was a lawyer close to labour movement and one of the most prominent l ...
as told to him by a nun (Companys’ sister). Companys had been president of the
Generalitat of Catalonia
The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label=Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed b ...
during the Civil War. Arrested by the Gestapo in France, where he had sought refuge in 1939, he was extradited and executed in the
Montjuïc
Montjuïc () is a hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Etymology
Montjuïc translates to "Jewish Mountain" from medieval Latin and Catalan, and remains of a medieval Jewish cemetery have been found there. Some sources suggest that Montjuïc ...
castle after a very brief military trial in 1940.
* The tram strike of 1951 was a protest of the people of Barcelona against a plan to raise fares by up to 40%. For a fortnight, people refused to use public transport and made their journeys on foot. Cruells describes it as a witness: “I was there on other business; I suddenly noticed that buses were empty, shops were closed, and that the masses, who should have been in their factories, workshops, or offices, were crammed into the city centre. They walked in silence; the only sound was the tramping of thousands of feet…” It was first strike since the Civil War and was successful in so far as the fare hikes were withdrawn.
* On 11 May 1966, 130 Catholic priests protested in their cassocks against the torturing of a student at the police headquarters in
Via Laietana
Via Laietana () Vía Layetana in Spanish, is a major thoroughfare in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in the Ciutat Vella district. The avenue runs from Plaça Urquinaona to Plaça d'Antonio López, by the seafront, and separates the neighbourhoods ...
in Barcelona. The demonstration was brutally repressed by the police. Cruells recounts: the police “hit us in the face with these (truncheons) or their fists, and some people were knocked unconscious to the ground, where they continued being kicked. We had pledged in the cloisters that we would not run away, whatever happened, and we kept our word; we let them hit us, we didn’t budge or offer any resistance.
”
English translation
In 2017,
Peter Bush translated the novel into English. In his afterword to Winds of the Night, historian
Paul Preston
Sir Paul Preston CBE (born 21 July 1946) is an English historian and Hispanist, biographer of Francisco Franco, and specialist in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. He is the winn ...
stated that the translation "beautifully captured" the "exquisite prose" of the original novel. Peter Bush also translated Uncertain Glory in 2014.
Notes
References
External links
Review of Winds of the Night in the Scottis
Herald newspaper
Review by Michael Eaude fro
Censorship in Spain
Catholicism
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winds_of_the_Night (novel)
Barcelona in fiction
Francoist Spain
Literary translation
1956 novels
Catalan-language novels