Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Most of the English nation welcomed the
restoration of the Stuarts after prolonged
civil war and Oliver Cromwell's military
dictatorship. They were disappointed, how-
ever, by the choice of a Catholic bride and
her failure to bear an heir to the throne.
Protestant hostility peaked in 1678 when
the queen was accused of supporting the
so-called Popish Plot. She was protected,
nevertheless, by the king, who remained
fond of her despite her lack of children and
his own numerous infidelities. After the
death of Charles II his widow was given
hospitality by his brother, James II (1685-
88), but she left England after his over-
throw. Catherine spent the remainder of
her life in Portugal, serving for a time as
regent for her brother, P
ETER
II.
Catherine's dowry included the Portu-
guese colony of Bombay, which became
the foundation for England's Indian
empire. Her marriage influenced ongoing
friendly relations between Portugal and
England, enhanced by the Methuen Treaty
of 1703, which she helped facilitate, and
Portugal was long known as “England's
oldest ally.”
as early as 1942 and has appeared in count-
less editions and a multitude of translations
over six decades. Some have called it the
best known, if not the greatest, Spanish
work of fiction since C
ERVANTES
's
Don Qui-
jote.
An unsparing self-revelation by the
murderous peasant of the title, it shocked
by its mixture of brutality and humanity. In
La colmena
(
The Hive,
1951), he offered an
intricate portrayal of contemporary life in
M
ADRID
, interweaving some 300 charac-
ters struggling with the frustrations and
oppressions of the Franco dictatorship.
Variously called the founder of a new
school of social realism or the father of
tre-
mendismo,
an emphasis on violence and
grotesque imagery, Cela disdained catego-
ries and labels, turning over the years to a
wide variety of themes and approaches. A
self-confidence amounting at times to
arrogance and the audacity that seemed
always to escape the usual fate of the reck-
less fascinated the public and kept the
authorities off balance. It might have been
said that there were two Celas. One was
the author of the travel account
Viaje a la
Alcarría
(
Journey to the Alcarría,
1948), the
member of the Spanish Royal Academy
(1957), and the founder and editor of the
respected literary review
Papeles de Son
Armadans
(1956-79). The other was the
author of the multivolume
Diccionario secreto
(Secret dictionary), whose 11th volume
appeared in 1972, a compilation of
“unprintable” but well-known words and
phrases, described by some contemporaries
as “disgusting” and “appalling.”
After the death of Franco, King J
UAN
C
ARLOS
marked the esteem in which Cela
was held by inviting him to join the draft-
ing committee for the constitution. As Cela
told it his proposals were too democratic (or
Cela, Camilo José
(1916-2002)
Spanish writer
Born in Iria Flavia, Galicia, Cela was very
conscious of his Galician links as well as his
English connection, through his mother's
family, Trulock. After tentative studies in
medicine and law he was caught up in the
S
PANISH
C
IVIL
W
AR
, fighting on the Franco
side and later serving briefly as a censor. It
has been said that he spent the rest of his
life making up for that choice. His most
famous novel,
La familia de Pascual Duarte
(
The Family of Pascual Duarte
), was published
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