Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (Catalan pronunciation: [məɾˈsɛ ruðuˈɾɛðə]; 10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983) was a Catalan novelist who wrote in the Catalan language.
She is regarded as the most important modern Catalan writer because other authors often mention her work, and her books are well known worldwide. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages.
She is also considered the most important female Catalan novelist after World War II. Her novel La plaça del diamant (The Diamond Square, translated as The Time of the Doves, 1962) is the most widely read Catalan novel. It has been translated into over 30 languages. Some critics believe it is one of the best novels written in Spain after the Spanish Civil War.
After her death, people discovered that she was also a painter. This talent had not been widely known before because she focused most of her time on writing.
Biography
Mercè Rosa Rodoreda i Gurguí was born on October 10, 1908, at 340 carrer de Balmes, Barcelona. Her parents were Andreu Rodoreda, from Terrassa, and Montserrat Gurguí, from Maresme. Both loved literature and theater and had taken classes in recital at the School of Dramatic Art, which later became the Institute of Theater. Her mother also enjoyed music.
Her family had financial difficulties, so she left school at age nine. From 1915 to 1917, she attended the Lurdes School in the Sarrià neighborhood. From 1917 to 1920, she went to the Nuestra Señora de Lourdes center, which was near her home on Calle de Padua, near the street of Vallirana. Later, she studied only French and business arithmetic at an academy.
Her maternal grandfather, Pere Gurguí, admired Jacint Verdaguer, a writer, and had worked as an editor for magazines called La Renaixensa and L'Arc de Sant Martí. In 1910, Pere Gurguí built a monument in his garden to honor Jacint Verdaguer. The monument had carvings of the titles of two of Verdaguer’s most important works, Canigó and L'Atlàntida. This place was used for family gatherings. Her grandfather deeply influenced her, and she considered him her teacher. He taught her to value Catalan culture, the Catalan language, and flowers, which appeared often in her writing.
Mercè Rodoreda once wrote, “I remember the feeling of being at home when I saw the blue flowers of the jacaranda fall on the grass and the hydrangeas. I have never felt more at home than when I lived at my grandfather’s house with my parents.”
On May 18, 1913, when she was five years old, she performed in a play called The Mysterious Jimmy Samson, playing the role of Kitty. Years later, she used a character from that play, Kitty, in a story called The Bathroom, which was part of a collection titled Twenty-two Stories.
During her childhood, she read works by famous Catalan authors, including Jacint Verdaguer, Ramon Llull, Joan Maragall, Josep Maria de Sagarra, and Josep Carner. Her family’s home had a lively, creative atmosphere that influenced her.
On May 30, 1920, she participated in a play called Fifteen Days of Reign at Lourdes School. She also read a Catalan poem called La negra during the same event.
In 1921, her uncle Juan moved in with the family and changed their lifestyle, enforcing strict rules. She had idealized him based on letters she had received before and married him on October 10, 1928, her 20th birthday, at the church of Bonanova. He was 14 years older than her, and because they were related, they needed special permission from the Pope.
After the wedding, the couple traveled to Paris for their honeymoon and moved into a house on Zaragoza Street. Her husband had returned from Argentina with money.
On July 23, 1929, their son, Jordi Gurguí i Rodoreda, was born. From that time, Mercè Rodoreda began writing to gain independence from her husband’s financial control. She wrote in a blue dovecote at her mother-in-law’s house, which later inspired a scene in her novel The Time of the Doves. During this time, she wrote poetry, a play, and a novel.
In 1931, she started taking classes at the Dalmau Lyceum, where she studied language with Delfí Dalmau i Enero, a teacher, linguist, and supporter of Esperanto. Dalmau encouraged her writing and helped her publish her first work. He called her an exceptional student with great potential. Dalmau also asked her to collaborate on a piece called Polémica, An Apology for Catalan and Esperanto, which she wrote and published in 1934.
In 1932, Rodoreda wrote her first novel, Am I an Honored Woman?, and contributed stories to newspapers. The book was not widely noticed until it was nominated for the Crexells Prize in 1933, though the winner that year was Carles Soldevila. She also published an interview with actress Maria Vila in Mirador magazine.
On October 1, 1933, she began working as a writer for the weekly magazine Clarisme, where she published 22 pieces, including five essays on tradition, thirteen interviews, two reviews, a short story, and comments on politics, music, and film. That same year, she joined the Barcelona Press Association, showing her commitment to journalism.
In the spring of 1934, she published her second work, What Cannot Be Escaped, in Clarisme. That year, she won the Independent Casino Award for a story titled The Little Mermaid and the Dolphin, which is now lost.
In 1934, Joan Puig i Ferreter, a publisher, visited her and helped her publish her next novel, A Day in the Life of a Man, which came out in the same year. Puig i Ferreter introduced her to a group of writers called El Club de los Novelistas, which included authors like Armand Obiols and Joan Oliver. During this time, she began reading the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky.
From 1935 to 1939, she wrote sixteen children’s stories for the newspaper La Publicidad, in a section called A While with Children. Notable stories include The Boy and the House, dedicated to her son, and The Sheet, dedicated to Josep Carner. She also wrote for other Catalan publications like La Revista, La Veu de Catalunya, and Mirador.
In 1936, she published her fourth novel, Crim. Later, she rejected this novel and her first three books, calling them works of an inexperienced writer.
From 1937 until that time, Rodoreda worked as a Catalan language editor for the Generalitat’s Propaganda Commissariat. There, she met writers like Aurora Bertrana and Maria Teresa Vernet and became friends with Susina Amat, Julieta Franquesa, Anna Murià, and Carmen Manrubia.
In 1937, she won the Joan Crexells Prize for her work Aloma. That same year, she separated from her husband, Joan Gurguí, after nine years of marriage and one child. Her lover, Andreu Nin, was arrested on June 16, 1937, near his party’s headquarters on La Rambla in Barcelona. He was later tortured and killed by Soviet police officers in Alcalá de Henares, following orders from General Alexander Orlov.
In 1938, her fifth novel, Aloma, was published by the Institute of Catalan Letters. This was the first book she accepted as her own, though she later rewrote and republished it. That year, she