Camilo Jose Cela, Author

Spanish Novelist, Poet, Short-Story Writer, Known for The Hive

May 11, 2008
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Camilo José Cela, Spanish Poet and Novelist - NNDB

Brief biography of Spanish author and Nobel Laureate Camilo José Cela, famous for his book La Familia de Pascual Duarte.

Camilo José Cela is one of Spain's leading novelists, specializing in satirical works of realism. He is best-known for The Family of Pascual Duarte although The Hive is considered his masterpiece. In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.

Early Years of Camilo José Cela

Cela was born in Iria Flavia, Spain, on May 11, 1916. His father, Camilo, was a customs officer and a part-time author, and his mother was Camila Emmanuela. When he was 17, Cela enrolled at the University of Madrid, but his education was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War. After serving as a corporal in the fascist-controlled Nationalist Army, he resumed his studies, finally graduating at age 27. The following year, he married Maria del Rosario Conde Picavea but divorced in 1989, and remarried Marina Castano two years later.

Cela Writing Theme and Style

When he was 26, Cela published his first and most popular novel, The Family of Pascual Duarte, which has since been made into a film. The novel was labelled 'tremendismo,' a literary style he is credited with inventing. Tremendismo deals with the darker side of life and is often violent, which is intended to shock the reader. The violence of The Family of Pascual Duarte did shock, and the novel was briefly banned.

As Cela's work progressed, it became more experimental. His main aim was to change the way novels are written and his main concern was with the characters. In most books the important element is the story, told in correct date order – past, present, then future. In his masterpiece, The Hive, there are more than 300 characters, whose stories are told in snapshots, often loosely connected. In Toboggan of Hungry People, future and past events are mixed together with no specific order.

Awards and Honors

Cela's works introduced new literary ideas. He died of heart disease on January 17, 2002. Aside from his nobel prize in literature (1989), some of his awards and honors include Premio de la critica, for Historias de Venezuela: La Catira, 1955; Spanish National Prize for Literature for Mazurca para dos Muertos, 1984; Premio Principe de Asturias, 1987; Cervantes Prize, 1994; and some honorary doctorates from Syracuse University (1964), University of Birmingham (1976), University of Palma de Mallorca (1979), and John F. Kennedy University in Buenos Aires, Argentina.