Herrumbrosas lanzas (I - XV) / Rusty Spears
Novel , 1998
DeBolsillo
Winner of the Spanish National Critics’ Prize for Fiction (1983)
Considered by many to be “the highest novelistic recreation” of the Spanish Civil War, Rusty Spears is also a profound reflection on the conflict’s causes, development, and consequences.
Written in radical dissent from the vast body of literature devoted to the war, Benet focuses here on the military aspects of the conflict, relegating ideological and emotional concerns to the background. The result is a monumental and gripping book, written in the lively style of ancient chronicles, full of humor and memorable characters, in which the setting of Región—emblem rather than metaphor of Spain—assumes a central role.
This edition includes the posthumous fragments related to the (unfinished) novel and features the map of Región drawn by the author himself in 1983. The text has been established with reference to Benet’s final typescript. It also includes the essays “Fate and Style” (1987) by Francisco Rico and “Those Fragments” (1998) by Javier Marías.