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Barcelona is life, tourism, sea, modernism, fun, culture, mix, hodgepodge, magic… The city has become one of the most popular capitals of the world and therefore it is no surprise that it is also a city of literature. There are hundreds of writers who have let themselves be taken in by its charm and they have chosen it as the scene of their novels. If we look back, we will see that it turned into a literary city around the nineteenth century, when Narcís Oller with his novel La febre d’or, Antoni Altadill with his novel Barcelona y sus misterios and the French Carcó, Bourget, Pieyre de Mandiargues y Genet wrote the first Barcelona ideologies.

Which is the real Barcelona, the actual city or the thousand times reinvented among ink and papers? Barcelona has been written and rewritten; it has been woven throughout hundreds of novels, between the past and the present. From there has emerged an imaginary space full of miseries and glories, suburban prostitutes and exquisite high class escort girls, rich and poor people, disillusioned artists and great ones…

There are so many writers who have chosen Barcelona as a backdrop for their novels in different states! The great Miguel de Cervantes chose it as the unique urban scene for Don Quixote. Verdaguer and Joan Maragall Jacint penned poems about it. Even Orwell wrote about it in a revolutionary setting. Josep Pla related up to the last detail of its daily life; Jean Genet investigated its darker side and Vázquez Montalbán, Eduardo Mendoza, Juan or Carlos Ruiz Zafón Marsé have raised it up to unimaginable heights.

To Barcelona it has not been enough to radiate captivation, but it has managed to grab the pen of the greatest writers. This way, many writers have not resigned to live in its streets, but they have written new stories, characters and landscapes of a Barcelonian world that has always ranged between the real and the fictitious world.

What would have been of the Gracia neighbourhood without Mercè Rodorera’s books? And what about the Raval district without the famous detective Pepe Cravalho by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán? Who has not heard about the characters of Mendoza? All of them have woven a strong literary web in Barcelona. In fact, there are many tour operators that offer guided trips known as the “literary tours” of the city, like La Sombra del Viento by Carlos Ruiz Zafón or La Catedral Del Mar by Ildefonso Falcones.

Few cities have as complete a literary mirror such as Barcelona. Discover it! Rent apartments in Barcelona and enjoy your stay in the city of books.

Tags: barcelona books, barcelona city, barcelona literary, barcelona literature, barcelone logement, books from barcelona, books from spain