Novel
Count Julian
Reivindicación del conde don Julián
Juan Goytisolo · 1970
Synopsis
A Spaniard in exile in Tangier spends a day that never ends watching, from a height in the city, the coast of his country on the other side of the strait. He takes as his model Don Julian, the count of Ceuta whom official history holds to be a traitor because he supposedly opened the peninsula to the Arabs in the eighth century, and dreams of a new invasion. In his mind he attacks everything that makes up Spain in his eyes: its myths, its Catholic faith, its literature, its language and its glories, foremost among them Seneca.
Context
The novel appeared in Mexico City in 1970 from Joaquín Mortiz: it was judged in Spain to be unpatriotic and anti-Catholic, and could be published there only after Franco's death. It forms the second part of a trilogy devoted to the same character, Álvaro Mendiola. The monologue addresses itself in the second person, without paragraphs, in a baroque prose that mixes languages and turns the authors of the Spanish heritage against themselves. Recent Spanish editions, including that of Cátedra, title it simply Don Julián.
Who it is for
A monologue without a plot, in very long sentences; the legend of Count Julian and the Spanish classics shed light on the reading.
Prizes and reception
Mario Vargas Llosa saw in it the most moving work of its author; the book was not sold in Spain until after 1975.