Javier Marías: a literary icon

The recent death of writer, translator and columnist Javier Marías (1951-2022) has deeply saddened the literary world. His unique style of writing, his wittiness and his exquisite command of language (in Spanish and in English) won him numerous accolades and many followers both in Spain and abroad. His death on 11 September at the age of 70 came far too early for a writer in his prime who many believed was an obvious candidate for the Nobel prize in Literature. 

Javier Marías (El hombre que no parecía querer nada, 744:39.c.95.435)

Javier Marías graduated in Philosophy and Literature from the Complutense University of Madrid. He taught Spanish literature and translation theory at the University of Oxford between 1983 and 1985, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1984, and at the Complutense University of Madrid between 1986 and 1990. 

He made his debut as a writer at the age of nineteen with his novel Los dominios del lobo and had an extensive and prolific career. Translation shaped and influenced his work. Throughout his career, he expertly translated Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Thomas Browne, Vladimir Nabokov and Lawrence Sterne, amongst other writers (he won the Fray Luis de León national translation award for his translation of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy in 1979). 

His works have been translated into more than forty languages and published in over fifty countries.  He wrote sixteen novels, eight essays and six short stories, as well as his regular weekly column for the Spanish newspaper El País. In 2006, he was elected to the Real Academia de la Lengua Española (Royal Spanish Academy), the institution responsible for preserving the unity and effective use of the Spanish language in the Spanish speaking world. And, in 2021, he became a member of Britain’s Royal Society of Literature as an International Writer, the first Spanish writer to obtain this distinction. 

Tu rostro mañana 1

Tu rostro mañana 2

Tu rostro mañana 3

The University Library has good coverage of his works in Spanish as well as in English translation. His best-known works appear below, listed in order of appearance more or less: 

• Los dominios del lobo (9002.d.2638, available here) 
• Travesía del horizonte (9001.d.2771, available here) 
• El monarca del tiempo (744:39.c.200.371, available here) 
• El Siglo (744:39.c.200.317, available here) 
• El hombre sentimental (9001.d.2772, available here) 
• Todas las almas (9000.d.3879, available here) 
• Corazón tan blanco (9006.c.393, available here) 
• Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí (Library Storage Facility, available here)  
• Negra espalda del tiempo (C206.d.6260, available here) 
• Tu rostro mañana 1. Fiebre y lanza (744:39.c.200.301, available here)  
• Tu rostro mañana 2. Baile y sueño (744:39.c.200.302, available here) 
• Tu rostro mañana 3. Veneno y sombra y adiós (744:39.c.200.303, available here) 
• Los enamoramientos (C205.c.8016, available here) 
• Así empieza lo malo (C209.c.6900, available here) 
• Berta Isla (C214.c.5164, available here)  
• Tomás Nevinson (C217.c.353, available here) 

The Library also has electronic access to his works Lección pasada de moda: letras de lengua (Digitalia Hispánica, available here) and Donde todo ha sucedido: al salir del cine (Digitalia Hispánica, available here). You can see a list of English translations of his works clicking here. 

Sonia Morcillo

Annie Ernaux, 2022 Literature Nobel Prize laureate

Annie Ernaux received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”. Although a prolific and successful writer who from the 1970s has tackled personal and provocative subjects (such as abortion and female sexuality), she has often been criticized for the alleged poverty of her style. 

Andrea Camilleri

By Marco Tambara via Wikimedia Commons

We were saddened to hear of the death of Andrea Camilleri, aged 93, one of Italy’s best-loved authors. For so many readers he had brought Sicily to life, capturing the difficult social problems of the island with affection and humour.

In 2014 we posted on this blog a piece to celebrate his Montalbano series. Since then we have continued to acquire further works in the series, the most recent being:

Umberto Eco, 1932-2016

Picture by Università Reggio Calabria (GFDL), via Wikimedia Commons.

In the book Vertigine della Lista (S950.c.200.947 and S950.c.200.802 for the English version) published on the occasion of the exhibition he curated in 2009 at the Louvre in Paris, Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) discusses the value and meaning of lists throughout history. The Italian author and philosopher argued in an interview with Der Spiegel that “through lists, through catalogues, through collections in museums and through encyclopaedias and dictionaries” human beings attempt to make infinity comprehensible. People describe the sky and try to list stars; poets and lovers endlessly search for words to describe their feelings, often making a list of things they love as a way of starting their pursuit.

Günter Grass

A month ago today, on April 13^th, Günter Grass died aged 87. He was one of the dominant figures of German contemporary literature, who rose to international fame and earned a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999. His writing mainly dealt with the German Nazi past and is considered to be part of the genre of “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” (coming to terms with the past). He was socially engaged throughout his life and a firm supporter of left-wing politics, something he had in common with the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, who coincidentally died on the same day as Grass. The University Library has an extensive collection of Grass’s literary works and our holdings can be easily browsed by searching the catalogue for Grass as author, or doing a subject heading search for books about him.

A selection of bookcovers desigend by Grass (S746.bb.200.1)

Grass originally wanted to be a painter and enjoyed and tried to incorporate painting into his life as much as possible. He reportedly said that it was something that he had always taken a keen interest in. He illustrated several of his works and usually also the covers of his books, but he also worked on his art as a painter and sculptor on works not connected to his literary output. He published some of his paintings later himself and several exhibitions were held. The UL also has a substantial collection of these works and catalogues that may not come directly to mind when thinking about Grass.