Today on Project Gutenberg: "The Shadow of the Cathedral"
On my old WordPress blog, I used to run a series of mini-articles that I called “Today on Project Gutenberg.” The premise was simple: I would select a random book from Project Gutenberg’s collection of over 60,000 public domain titles, go over some highlights from said book and give my opinion on it. I had a lot of fun writing those and they were easy to make, so I’ve decided to resurrect the series here on Substack!
So, for our inaugural issue of the new Today on PG, we have…
The Shadow of the Cathedral by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Ibáñez (or VBI, as I feel like calling him) was a Spanish author, journalist and politician most active in the late 19th/early 20th century. The English-speaking world probably remembers his name because of the many Hollywood films based on his books: his most famous novel, Blood and Sand, has been adapted at least four times. But his career, exploits and legacy go much deeper than that. He was opposed to both the monarchy and the Catholic Church and fought for the re-establishment of the Spanish Republic. He was a real rabblerouser, making many enemies and getting into at least one violent altercation that he survived by sheer luck. Wild!
The Shadow of the Cathedral, known in Spanish as just La Catedral, was written in 1903 and translated into English as early as 1919. Set in around the cathedral in Toledo, it tells the story of Gabriel Luna, a broken-down man who comes home to die after a lifetime spent abroad. Raised to join the church, he instead became a revolutionary and wandered around Europe seeking intellectual enlightment and getting in trouble with the authorities. Upon his return to the Toledo Cathedral, this prodigal son must readjust to life in his childhood home and make amends with his brother, who has family problems of his own.
In truth, all this is largely just a backdrop for VBI to talk about Spanish history and politics, especially his own political views, which are voiced through the character of Gabriel. The first few chapters set up his life story and how he came to be such an outcast. The rest of the book concerns his internal conflict of being forced to put his life in the hands of an institution he no longer believes in. He is disgusted with the decadence and corruption of the Catholic Church, and he makes no secret of that. Frustrated with the unchanging and exploitative nature of the establishment, Gabriel evolves into a sort of anti-priest, preaching to the poor workers about the Church’s evils in the hopes that his flock will take heed and better themselves. And they do take his words to heart, but not in the way he intends.
The Cathedral was to Gabriel like a gigantic tumour, which blistered the Spanish epidermis, like scars of its ancient infirmities. It was not a muscle capable of development, but an abscess which bided its time either to be extirpated, or to disappear of itself through the working of the germs it contained; he had chosen this ruin as his refuge and he ought to be silent, to be prudent so that his ingratitude should not be flung in his face.
I wouldn’t recommend this novel to a casual reader. I found its prose to be rather dry, though that may be due to the English translation. It might be better in the Spanish version, which can be found here. But if you’re interested in Spanish history and politics, I think you’ll find a lot to dig into in this book. The descriptions of the cathedral itself are lengthy and detailed, as are the lively debates between Gabriel and his priest rivals. There are probably better ways to introduce yourself to VBI’s body of work, but there’s good stuff in here all the same.
And that’s what we found today on Project Gutenberg. See you next time!
— Dana