The City of Marvels

by Eduardo Mendoza and Mendoza Eduardo

Book Overview

Eduardo Mendoza's classic novel about the birth of Barcelona as a world city, embodied in the rise of the ambitious and unscrupulous Onofre Bouvila "Though historical in subject matter, this story of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151180407
• ISBN13: 9780151180400
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt P
• Length: 418 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The City of Marvels review

The City of Marvels, a fictional novel, written by Eduardo Mendoza follows the adventures and trials of Onofre Bouvila, a poor country boy living in Barcelona as he progresses toward his goal of becoming wealthy and powerful. Immediately upon his arrival in the city he moves into a boarding house where he meets the owner and his mysterious daughter Delfina. Although he is disheartened at the prospect of never finding work in the city, his new acquaintance Delfina gets him a job with a fellow anarchist Pablo to work for their campaign. Onofre then begins a long string of various jobs that help launch him into wealth. These occupations include handing out anarchist pamphlets, selling hair oil, selling stolen merchandise from the World Fair, working his way up through a Barcelonan mob, filmmaking and more. Onofre reaches his goal, and becomes a wealthy and well known figure in Barcelona, rarely thinking of his past family, and his father who was a constant disappointment to him. Throughout the book he continually longs for more power and money and never seems to find contentment. Throughout the novel, Mendoza deals with several main themes including Place, money, and power. The novel follows the development of Barcelona as a place through two World Fairs, different city rulers and even discusses the different class distinctions. Although, Barcelona is trying to emerge as an important and global city, Mendoza continues to focus on the poor and problems the city continues to harbor. Money and power also become a central part of the book and Onofre's life, he is never happy with the amount of money or control he obtains. These themes of place, money and power are continued in the novel, developing them as the city and Onofre develop with them. After following the development of Onofre and the city of Barcelon, the ending comes as both an interesting twist and a surprise to the reader. This is not your typical novel, but still interesting as it contains a great deal of information about the city of Barcelona with long descriptions of geography and historical references, and how it parallels with the novels characters. Mendoza uses Onofre's strange attraction yet horrible treatment of women in his novel to represent different parts of Barcelona. His relationship with Delfina represents his treatment of the lower class and his disregard for their space. Onofre's later relationship with his wife represents his treatment of the upper class, and his need to gain more wealth. Lastly, his involvement with the young Beltal girl shows how he abuses the middles class and their space. The novel follows Barcelona as it develops and preps for the two World Fairs, and parallels with the changes made for the Olympics at the time of the novels publication. Although, a background of Barcelona is not necessary to read this novel, it may help when trying to understand the many references made to the geography and history of the city. This novel will give you an underst

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Eduardo Mendoza's novel, La Ciudad de Los Prodigios translated into The City of Marvels, depicts the story of not only fictional characters, but also covers facts of historic events and geography. This book was copyrighted in the year 1986, however the translated book by Bernard Molloy was copyrighted in 1988. Through the main character, Onofre, the audience sees that he always used his power to benefit from Barcelona. Mendoza displays reoccurring themes about the main character such as, greed and the concept that people with power corrupts every person who comes in their path. In the story readers observe, the life of Onofre Bouvilia, the main character in the novel as he learns of the power he eventually gains. This novel takes place in Barcelona, Spain. Onofre first moves to Barcelona at the young age of thirteen. He earns money by working a few tedious jobs such as distributing pamphlets at the World Fair, stealing products from the World's Fair, selling war weapons, and working as a mobster. Through out his jobs, he becomes an accomplished business man by creating ways to manipulate others to gain in his own fortune. He uses trickery and murders his fellow co-workers in order to receive what he desire. This is true for his experiences in both the business world and his own personal life. Once Onofre views his objects of affection and obession, he still will always find himself wanting more. Mendoza's novel depicts the life of a young man who changes the way he is because of a reversal in fortune. Mendoza displays reoccurring themes about the main character such as, greed and the concept that people with power corrupts every person who comes in their path. Mendoza explains these themes as the readers watch as Onofre becomes successful in life and grows greedier. He then uses his power to corrupt and manipulate people who are connected to him such as the women and friends around him. Onofre will never be content with what he has in life. Mendoza's novel depicts the life of a young man who changes the way he is because of a reversal in fortune. If one desires to learn about the culture and history of the city, this would be the book to read.

The City of Marvels Book Review

The City of Marvels, written by Barcelona native Eduardo Mendoza, is one of the most important novels in contemporary Spanish literature. It was written in 1986 and translated to English in 1988 by Bernard Molloy. The novel is set between 1888 and 1929, the years of Barcelona's two World Fairs. The City of Marvels chronicles the life of corrupt businessman Onofre Bouvila. As an early teen, Onofre moves to Barcelona from a small farm with the hopes of getting rich. He finds a place to live at a shabby boardinghouse where he becomes obsessed with the owner's daughter, an awkward girl named Delfina. She in turn finds him his first job distributing anarchist pamphlets at the site of the 1888 World Fair. Eventually, through several random schemes such as arms smuggling, land speculating, and film producing, Onofre becomes the wealthiest man in Spain. With help from his monstrous buddy Efrén Castells, whom he met at the Fairgrounds in 1888, he uses violence to work his way to the top and reach his dreams of being rich and powerful. The City of Marvels has quite a few important themes. A very important one is about money and the power it brings. When Onofre was a young boy, his family had practically no money so he made it his goal to grow up and make as much money as possible. Once he finally did, he realized he could use his money to get literally everything he could imagine. With this money, Onofre was able to wield power and manipulate business deals, women and urban space. Another theme is the similarities between the characters in the novel and the city of Barcelona. In The City of Marvels, Onofre treats the city as he does his women. He treats both extremely poorly and acts as if it his right to do so. Onofre and Barcelona are also similar in their growth. As the city grows and expands, so does Onofre's empire. There is also a parallelism between the renovation of Onofre's mansion and the urban development of Barcelona for the two World Fairs of 1888 and 1929. This idea of urban renovation and development also links to the city when the book was written and published in the 1980s, in the midst of intense preparation for the Olympic Games of 1992. The novel is well written, well developed and intriguing. However, it seems as if some of its effect was lost in translation. All in all, I would definitely recommend this novel to any reader, especially one interested in the history and culture of Barcelona.

Book Review of The City of Marvels

The City of Marvels by Eduardo Mendoza reveals a spirit and life of Barcelona that is not portrayed to the traveler in pamphlets and travel videos. It goes further than the external characteristics of the city and shows an intricate web of street crimes, drama and corruption. This fictitious novel was copyrighted by Mendoza in 1986 and the English translation was copyrighted by Harcourt Brace in 1988. The book won the Premio Ciudad de Barcelona award in Spain and the Premio Grinzane-Cavour award in Italy. Its author, who grew up and still currently lives in Barcelona, incorporates his knowledge of the history of the city with an enthralling fictitious story. Inside the novel, many allusions to real-life themes can be found; the three most dominant of these are selfishness and greed over money; social acceptance and corruption; and the development of urban space. The novel's protagonist, Onofre Bouliva, comes to Barcelona in the beginning of the story with the sole intention of becoming rich. He obtains money through a variety of projects, starting with handing out anarchist pamphlets at the World Fair of 1888, and ending with making movies and funding the research of a flying machine, which he presents at the World Fair of 1929. Through his arrogant and unscrupulous means he manages to become one of the richest men in the city of Barcelona, and yet he still fails to gain complete acceptance to the noblest circle of the city's upper class citizens. One of the reasons why Onofre remains an outcast in the upper class society is because everyone knows the means by which he gains his money. He does financial favors for the highest officials of the city (who later turn their backs on him), but is seen as someone who does dirty work and is unacceptable to the pristine society of the "old money" wealthy citizens who believe that their power is righteously obtained, even if they are just as corrupt as Onofre. Perhaps justly so, Onofre seems to corrupt everything and everyone he deals with. His main victim in the story is Barcelona. The city is personified, and figuratively is described as a delicate woman who is raped by the corruption of Onofre's dealings. During an informal meeting with Mendoza, he says that Onofre treats the city of Barcelona as he treats his women: he "falls in love" quickly but then forgets about it and hurts his lover after he gets whatever it was that he wanted out of her. Through reading The City of Marvels, readers get a sense of the history and physical facts about the city, while reading an intricate story about the development of corruption within it. Barcelona is given a personality; its sense of place personifies and embodies the characteristics that make the city what it is today.

THE CITY OF MARVELS Review

In his award-winning novel, The City of Marvels, Eduardo Mendoza brings turn of the century Barcelona alive through imaginative storytelling imbued with a solid sense of place. Readers are taken on a candid tour of Barcelona through the eyes of Onofre Bouliva, an ambitious country boy come to city during the 1888 World Fair, which was destined to lead the Catalan capital to either greatness or ruin. Onofre manages to find work distributing pamphlets for the growing group of anarchists, but he soon discovers the enticing lure of capitalism and his own entrepreneurial savvy. Armed solely with his profound power of persuasion, Onofre climbs the ladder of the Barcelonan underground, stepping on the rungs of thievery, smuggling, bribery, and eventually murder on his way to the top. He later attains semi-legitimacy and wealth as land speculator, and marries his boss's beautiful daughter, but these accomplishments cannot bring him happiness because they can never grant him admission into Barcelona's noble class. Embittered by this realization, he begins to focus on his various obsessions, including the meticulous historical restoration of an old mansion, the transformation of a wretched girl into a silent-screen star and investment in new-fangled flying machines. As the novel comes to a close, Barcelona is hosting its second grand spectacle, the 1929 World Fair, and it is here that Onofre takes his final leave of the city in a manner befitting such a remarkable life. Throughout the narrative, documented fact is interwoven with popular belief to create a rich historical tapestry of the city that has traditionally "turned its back on the sea" (13). Mendoza also draws uncanny parallels to Barcelona in its modern age. The selective renovation of the city for the two World Fairs is suggestive of the preparation for the 1992 Olympics which occurred during the time Mendoza was writing. Mendoza's personal experience of living in Barcelona helps to convey the unique perspective of the city's residents about such renovations. Throughout his life, Onofre takes brutal advantage of women by raping, exploiting and generally mistreating them, believing these to be his sanctioned rights. However, none of the women in the novel are developed well enough to be important to the reader, with the exception of one: the city of Barcelona herself. Onofre also figuratively rapes and exploits her, stealing from the World Fair's supplies, fixing mayoral elections and artificially driving up real estate prices in the newly developed Eixample district. Onofre's violation and degradation of this endearing city is the one thing that may bring tears to readers' eyes. This book is a must-read for those interested in Barcelona and Catalan culture, capitalism and its effects, and historical fiction. For bilingual readers, try the original Spanish edition published in 1986, as the 1988 translation into English by Bernard Molloy tends to be over-explained and st