9781844674008-frontcover

Field of Honour

by Max Aub Translated by Gerald Martin Introduction by Ronald Fraser
Evocative, modernist novel chronicles the prelude to the Spanish Civil War.
A contemporary of Lorca and Buñuel in Spain’s Second Republic, Max Aub escaped into a life of exile after General Franco seized Barcelona. His masterpiece, acknowledged in Spain as one of the best accounts of the Spanish Civil War, is the five-novel cycle known as The Magic Labyrinth—never before translated into English. A playwright as well as a novelist, he brings the period alive through vibrant dialogue and a story that navigates the factional intrigues that eventually erupted onto the streets in violence.

The protagonist of the first novel is Rafael López Serrador, whose coming of age in Barcelona introduces a cast from all walks of city life—Catalan nationalists, anarchists, Falangists, government ministers and showgirls. Just as central a character is Barcelona itself, lovingly depicted. Rafael’s adventures bring him into contact with the forces that were to destroy the Republic and determine the bloody course of the Spanish Civil War. Masterfully translated by Gerald Martin, author of Gabriel García Márquez: A Life, Max Aub’s novel is set to introduce to an English-speaking audience a classic of Spanish and Latin American literature—an account of the Spanish Civil War to compare with Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Hardback, 253 pages

ISBN: 9781844674008

September 2009

$19.95 / £12.99

Reviews

  • “Not only indispensable reading for anyone who wants to fathom the psychological origins of the Spanish Civil War, it is indisputably the most impressive work of literary art among the host of novels produced by the war.”

    – Gerald Griffiths Brown, author of A Literary History of Spain

Blog

  • March competition: win a Guernica anniversary t-shirt

    75 years ago, 1937. The Nazi Luftwaffe backed Franco's fascists with the first ever carpet bombing of an undefended civilian target, Guernica. This atrocity horrified the world and helped to shift public opinion behind the Spanish Republican cause. Philosophy Football has produced a 75th anniversary T-shirt and we have 5 to be won in our March competition. Each lucky winner will also receive Max Aub's evocative novel set in the prelude to the Spanish Civil War, Field of Honour.

     

    To enter, simply answer this question. By what name was the unit consisting of the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht volunteers, that served with Franco's forces, known? Email your answer with name, address and preferred T-shirt size to admin@philosophyfootball.com

    Entries close 31 March 2012, no purchase necessary to enter.

     

    Congratulations! To Marc Behrendt, Jon Hackett, Heather McCallum, Guy Reading and Francesca Silvani. All winners of a Tahrir Square T-shirt , also available from Philosophy Football, in our January competition.

     

    By Huw Lemmey / 28 February 2012 / post comment

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