A Broken Mirror

by Rodoreda, Merce

• ISBN13: 9780803290075
• ISBN10: 0803290071
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-06
• Publisher: Bison Books

Summary

Starred Review "Most captivating is how [Rodoreda] reveals the inner life of her characters precisely and unsentimentally, often merely with a well-turned sentence. The prose is rich, almost lush, but it is also impersonal, without artificial or romanticized descriptions of an ideal past or a lost future. Rodoreda is also perfectly attuned to the differences in each narrative voice. . . . [A] beautifully muted and intricate rendering of the aristocracy of Barcelona."Kirkus Reviews. In its moment of great splendor the novel was held as a mirror of society: Merce Rodoreda shatters that mirror in this, her most ambitious novel, which tells its story in brilliant fragments, a vision reflected and refracted and finally coming together in a richly articulated mosaic of life. Through thisBroken Mirror, the reader sees events and characters spanning three generations and composing a kaleidoscopic family history ranging over six decades and turning upon events both intimate and historicmost notably the Spanish Civil War. Opening with Teresa Goday, the lovely young fishmonger's daughter married to a wealthy old man, the story shifts from one perspective to another, reflecting from myriad angles the founding of a matriarchal dynastyand its eventual, seemingly inevitable disintegration. A family saga extending from the prosperous Barcelona of the 1870s to the advent of the Franco dictatorship,A Broken Mirroris finally also a novel about the inexorable passing of time. Merce Rodoreda (19081983) has emerged as perhaps the most important fiction writer of the twentieth century in Catalan literature and is one of the most interesting writers of the contemporary Spanish literary world. She is primarily known in this country for her novelThe Time of the Doves, published in English translation. Josep Miquel Sobrer is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. The editor ofCatalan Review, he has also edited and translated an anthology of Catalan texts,Catalonia: A Self-Portrait.

Author Biography

Mercè Rodoreda (1908–1983) has emerged as perhaps the most important fiction writer of the twentieth century in Catalan literature and is one of the most interesting writers of the contemporary Spanish literary world. She is primarily known in this country for her novel The Time of the Doves, published in English translation. Josep Miquel Sobrer is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University. The editor of Catalan Review, he has also edited and translated an anthology of Catalan texts, Catalonia: A Self-Portrait.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
PART ONE	1	(100)
A Jewel of Value	3	(7)
Barbara	10	(5)
Salvador Valldaura and Teresa Goday	15	(7)
A Villa in Sant Gervasi	22	(3)
A Storm in Spring	25	(6)
Joaquim Bergada in Barcelona	31	(6)
The Boy Jesus Masdeu	37	(4)
Bees and Wisteria	41	(3)
Spring-Cleaning	44	(5)
Eladi Farriols	49	(6)
Father and Daughter	55	(4)
Lady Godiva	59	(3)
Masdeu the Painter	62	(2)
Sofia's Wedding	64	(5)
Births	69	(5)
The Servants in Summer	74	(6)
The Children	80	(17)
A Turtledove at the Window	97	(4)
PART TWO	101	(66)
Attorney Riera	103	(6)
Time Past	109	(1)
The Piano Teacher	110	(4)
Eladi with a Chambermaid	114	(4)
Armanda's Earrings	118	(2)
Eulalia and Quim Bergada	120	(3)
Sofia	123	(2)
Senyoreta Rosa	125	(4)
Eladi Goes to Get His Children	129	(3)
Ramon and Maria	132	(3)
Ramon Leaves Home	135	(2)
Maria Listens behind the Door	137	(2)
Eladi Farriols and Attorney Riera	139	(2)
Maria	141	(4)
The Laurel	145	(3)
Good-bye, Maria	148	(3)
The Stone Slab	151	(2)
A New Set of Servants	153	(3)
Eladi Farriols's Wake	156	(5)
Sofia	161	(2)
Dreams	163	(4)
PART THREE	167	(48)
A Morning	169	(1)
Youth	170	(8)
Teresa's Death	178	(4)
Closed Rooms	182	(4)
Come Back Soon, Senyoreta Sofia	186	(4)
The Villa	190	(4)
The Very Old Attorney Goes for a Walk	194	(6)
The Movers	200	(1)
Maria's Ghost	201	(3)
Sofia and the Movers	204	(4)
Ramon	208	(2)
Armanda	210	(5)
The Rat	215