From Publishers Weekly

Hughes's historical-cultural treatise on the Catalonian capital sparkles on the topic of architecture. Photos.

Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- The throbbing beat of flamenco guitars and the clicking of castanets resound as readers peruse the pages of this epic history. Founded as an encampment by Roman invaders around 210 B.C. , Barcelona passed through centuries of strife until it reached its ``Golden Age'' between the years 1850 and 1925; it is on this era that Hughes focuses. Aficianados of his descriptive, colorful prose style from such bestsellers as The Fatal Shore (Random, 1988) and The Shock of the New (McGraw, 1981) will not be disappointed with this work, and students of architecture will be especially pleased with the author's detailed comparisons of the city's varied structural styles. A must book for students of modern Spanish or European history and culture.

- Richard Lisker, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The acclaimed author of The Fatal Shore ( LJ 11/1/86) and The Shock of the New ( LJ 2/15/81) brings to life that "great enchantress" of the Mediterranean with the same panache and elegant prose readers have come to expect. Barcelona's literature, painting, complex politics, vivid personalities, and cunning entrepreneurship through 1500 years are ingeniously interwoven. The result is a brilliant tapestry keyed to the city's architecture from its medieval Gothic splendors to Antoni Gaudi's dominating "delayed baroque" style and the present transformation associated with the forthcoming Olympic Games. Hughes's lengthy and thoroughly researched narrative lucidly delineates those historical factors generating the intense cultural nationalism of Spain's Catalonia and its great metropolis. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. History Book Club and Quality Paperback alternates; previewed in Pre pub Alert, LJ 10/1/91.

- William F. Young, SUNY at Albany Lib.

Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

After a rousing introduction that touches on the Spanish Civil War and Mir¢, Gaud¡, and the Barcelonese mania for design and its folk-pride in ``seny'' (well-proportioned common sense), coexisting with its ``tradition of intense, wrenching civic change, of long- shot gambles and risky endeavors,'' Hughes plunges into the history of the city and of Catalunya entire--and is all but lost in its swamp thereafter. Understandably wishing to replicate his deserved success with The Fatal Shore (1986), Hughes takes Barcelona chronologically. But where the Australian epic of the earlier book was one of remade identities and turbulent national narration, Hughes here is faced with more frozen layers of culture and provincial self-regard. He goes at it painstakingly--all the names and dates are here, from the Romans onward--yet the result is deprived of Hughes's signature dash and vector. There are fine historical cameos--ever hear of Narcis Monturiol and his pioneering submarines, proof of Barcelona's helpless but also wonderful addiction to modernity?-- but Hughes also must address himself to literature (the Catalan language being so important a determinant to the culture), and when he does this he seems to lose the confidently acerbic snap that his visual-art and architecture prose has (``The language of L'Atlantida is rich, sonorous, imbued not only with rhetorical grandeur but with intimate precision of observation and feeling''). The Gaud¡ section, which is very good, comes only at a very long book's end, by which time you are weary, and less involved than its great subject merits. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Confirms...Mr. Hughes's authority as a first-rate chronicler and historian. The book is destined to become, like Forster's Alexandria and Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed, a classic."

--The New York Times Book Review

"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage...his judgments are full of tolerant and good-humored fascination....There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail...a superb achievement and a great pleasure to read."

--Washington Post Book World

"Brilliant...an extraordinary book that combines history, criticism of the arts and architecture, and a profound sympathy for the moral essence of a people."

--New York Newsday

Review

"Confirms...Mr. Hughes's authority as a first-rate chronicler and historian. The book is destined to become, like Forster's Alexandria and Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed, a classic."

--The New York Times Book Review

"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage...his judgments are full of tolerant and good-humored fascination....There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail...a superb achievement and a great pleasure to read."

--Washington Post Book World

"Brilliant...an extraordinary book that combines history, criticism of the arts and architecture, and a profound sympathy for the moral essence of a people."

--New York Newsday

Product Description

Barcelona is Robert Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny -- the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.

From the Publisher

"An extraordinary book that combines history, criticism of the arts and architecture, and a profound sympathy for the moral essence of a people."--Newsday

Inside Flap Copy

Barcelona is Robert Hughes's monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain. Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny -- the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.

From the Back Cover

"Confirms...Mr. Hughes's authority as a first-rate chronicler and historian. The book is destined to become, like Forster's Alexandria and Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed, a classic." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage...his judgments are full of tolerant and good-humored fascination....There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail...a superb achievement and a great pleasure to read." -- Washington Post Book World

"Brilliant...an extraordinary book that combines history, criticism of the arts and architecture, and a profound sympathy for the moral essence of a people."