Uncertain glory (book)

Uncertain Glory (in Catalan Incerta glòria) is a novel from the Catalan-language writer and editor Joan Sales, first published in September 1956 and extended in successive subsequent editions until the final edition in 1971. However, this latter extension was titled Últimes notícies ("Latest news"), although in later editions it was presented as an independent novel titled El vent de la nit ("The wind of the night"). Written by a witness of the defeated side, it contains no political message neither leaves an easy partisan exaltation. It reflects a pain that survives any propaganda from two factions: both the novel and poetry squires of the Falange as communist or republican writers

The writing of the novel lasted twenty-three years, expanded and worked incessantly. It was first published in September 1956 and extended in successive subsequent editions until the final edition in 1971. The French translation of 1962 contained texts that could not be read in the Catalan version. In October 2014, his English translation was published, under the title Uncertain glory.

The novel is divided into four parts whose backdrop is the Spanish Civil War on the front and the rear of the Republicans. The first two parts use the epistolary form; the first recounts the experiences of young Lieutenant Lluís de Brocà i de Ruscalleda on the Aragon front; the second, however, takes the point of view of Trini Milmany, the female companion of Louis, who narrates his experiences in Barcelona. The third and fourth are the memories of the seminarist Cruells, later priest. One of the most important characters in the novel is Juli Soleràs, but appears only through the vision of the other characters, which one way or another are obsessed by it.

The style is fast and colloquial and reflects the language model of its author, who gave much importance to the spoken Catalan in his time, which took him to accept Spanish barbarism that other contemporaries, such as Joan Coromines, did not accept. However, the virtue of his style is to be direct and simple and also captures the freshness of many authentic expressions, without ceasing to be a literary Catalan, with many philosophical and literary quotations.

The novel won the Premi Joanot Martorell in 1955 and received good critical acclaim, starting by its French translation in 1962, where the book was compared with the work of writers such as Dostoevsky, Georges Bernanos or Julien Green. It is not strange comparison, as Dostoevsky was one of the favorite authors of Sales and therefore dare to make and edit an indirect translation, quite controversial, of The Brothers Karamazov.

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