Camilo José Cela

Born May 11, 1916, in Padrón, La Corana Province. Spanish writer. Member of the Royal Spanish Academy (1957).

Cela studied law in Madrid and England. His novel The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942), which laid the foundations of tremendista literature (literature employing extensive gory detail for effect; from the Spanish tremendo—“horrible,” “terrible”), depicts everyday life in Spain during the Franco period, as does his first objectivist novel, The Hive (1943; published 1951). The New Adventures and Misadventures of Lazarillo de Termes (1944) was an attempt to revive the genre of the picaresque novel. Cela’s travel notes A Journey to the Alcarria (1948) had a considerable influence on Spanish objectivist prose.

Cela’s principal theme is the tragic condition of human beings in bourgeois society, a society whose bankruptcy Cela demonstrates. In such works as the collection of essays entitled The Wheel of Leisure (1957), the common people are presented as bearers of lofty moral qualities. Cela published A Sheaf of Fables Without Love (1962) in collaboration with P. Picasso. The novel The Eve, Day, and Octave of the Feast of St. Camilo, Madrid 1936 expresses profound sympathy for the victims of the Civil War of 1936–39.