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Barcelona
Robert Hughes
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Overview
Barcelona is Robert Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny -- the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the bestselling author of The Fatal Shore comes a monumentally informed and irresistibly readable work of history, art criticism, and urban anthropology devoted to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. "Confirms Hughes's authority as a first-rate chronicler and historian."--The New York Times Book Review. 180 photos.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Hughes's historical-cultural treatise on the Catalonian capital sparkles on the topic of architecture. Photos. Mar.Library Journal
The acclaimed author of The Fatal Shore LJ 11/1/86 and The Shock of the New LJ 2/15/81 brings to life that ``great enchantress'' of the Mediterranean with the same panache and elegant prose readers have come to expect. Barcelona's literature, painting, complex politics, vivid personalities, and cunning entrepreneurship through 1500 years are ingeniously interwoven. The result is a brilliant tapestry keyed to the city's architecture from its medieval Gothic splendors to Antoni Gaudi's dominating ``delayed baroque'' style and the present transformation associated with the forthcoming Olympic Games. Hughes's lengthy and thoroughly researched narrative lucidly delineates those historical factors generating the intense cultural nationalism of Spain's Catalonia and its great metropolis. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. History Book Club and Quality Paperback alternates; previewed in Pre pub Alert, LJ 10/1/91.-- William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Lib.School Library Journal
YA-- The throbbing beat of flamenco guitars and the clicking of castanets resound as readers peruse the pages of this epic history. Founded as an encampment by Roman invaders around 210 B.C. , Barcelona passed through centuries of strife until it reached its ``Golden Age'' between the years 1850 and 1925; it is on this era that Hughes focuses. Aficianados of his descriptive, colorful prose style from such bestsellers as The Fatal Shore Random, 1988 and The Shock of the New McGraw, 1981 will not be disappointed with this work, and students of architecture will be especially pleased with the author's detailed comparisons of the city's varied structural styles. A must book for students of modern Spanish or European history and culture.-- Richard Lisker, Fairfax County Public Library, VABook Details
Published
December 7, 2011
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pages
592
ISBN
9780307764614