‘Solitude’ by Victor Katala (Real Name: Caterina Albert i Paradis) (1905) – 215 pages Translated from the Catalan by David H. Rosenthal

Catalonia is an autonomous area in the extreme northeast of Spain including the Pyrenees mountains on the border with France. Before you start thinking Catalonia is some small remote insignificant place, let me tell you that the largest city in Catalonia is Barcelona (Metro area population: 5,658,000). The people in Catalonia speak and write their own language, Catalan.

‘Solitude’ is a novel published over a hundred years ago which was written in Catalan. Despite the male pseudonym, one quickly senses that this novel was written by a woman. The main character is the woman Mila, and one immediately tunes in to her strong opinions.

At the beginning of ‘Solitude’, Mila and her husband Matias are making the long arduous trip through the mountains in order to run the hermitage (monastery) of St. Pontius who is an old man and still alive.

Mila and Matias have a difficult marriage. Mila is hard-working and resourceful; Matias is lazy, sleeps ’til noon, and gambles away whatever money they have. Meanwhile Matias pays little attention to his wife.

“Matias considered her just another habit, devoid of charm or interest.”

Although Mila isn’t officially separated from Matias, she has become indifferent to him.

“She scolded him no more and troubled neither him nor herself, as though the violent tie which she once hoped to bind him had now broken noiselessly and painlessly leaving their lives forever sundered, and with that unspoken divorce all the tensions between their natures seemed to vanish.”

Instead Mila has long leisurely vibrant conversations with the shepherd Gaieta who works at the hermitage. He tells her fascinating stories of St. Pontius and life at the hermitage.

“At the same time, she felt an extraordinary devotion to that little man whose ingenuity and kindness had lifted her to such heights.”

This is a novel of marital discord, the story of a strong woman who finds her husband severely lacking in the qualities she values. She then finds another man who has all of the traits she admires. What does she do?

‘Solitude’ is one of the few novels written over a hundred years ago that deals with a wife’s strong attraction for another man and is written from the woman’s point of view.

Grade:   A