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Tetralogía sobre la guerra civil española #2
Un millón de muertos
Un millón de muertos es la continuación de la trilogía que empezó con "Los cipreses creen en Dios" y que continúa con "Ha estallado la paz". Un inmenso fresco histórico que tiene lugar en plena guerra civil española, tratada tanto en su aspecto humano como en el sociológico y el militar, y que abarca a los dos bandos en pugna.
800 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 31, 2011
While not quite as exceptional as its predecessor this novel gives a remarkably even-handed account of the Spanish Civil War, especially striking given that it was written by a participant in that conflict. There are a few places where the translation is perhaps too literal but the language is beautiful and draws you into the lives of characters on both sides of the lines. The thing which stands out the most about this book is that, instead of engaging in a pointless game of "let's see which side's murders were worse", the author presents a perspective on the war from which every death (deserved or otherwise) is a tragedy.
March 8, 2021
Wonderful insight of the Spanish Civil War. You can usually read about it only from the republican point of view. This is quite neutral (it has been long considered one of the best and impartial descriptions of the conflict by many) and it is always good to hear both sides of a story.
It shrinks your heart to read about all the cruelty of war, also from those who are always considered the “good guys”.
No doubt it is the best I ever read about this subject, it’s a pity that it is so difficult to find an edition (no digital version). In this case, history has always been written by the defeated and this author fought the war on the winners side (that makes a killer of him nowadays).
It shrinks your heart to read about all the cruelty of war, also from those who are always considered the “good guys”.
No doubt it is the best I ever read about this subject, it’s a pity that it is so difficult to find an edition (no digital version). In this case, history has always been written by the defeated and this author fought the war on the winners side (that makes a killer of him nowadays).
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October 19, 2014El comentario del primer libro vale perfectamente para este.
Lo he leído con todo el interés porque la trilogía es estupenda.
No está firmado porque entonces no los firmaba.
Lo he leído con todo el interés porque la trilogía es estupenda.
No está firmado porque entonces no los firmaba.
August 20, 2017
Imprescindible por su calidad y tratamiento de la contienda.
February 1, 2020
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Gironella’s earlier novel, THE CYPRESSES BELIEVE IN GOD—which was set in the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War, while the war itself is the backdrop here—is a favorite too, but this is even better, probably among my top ten of favorite books.
As was the prior novel, this is a remarkable and sympathetic portrait of both sides of a deadly conflict. However, the preceding book’s tendency to be slightly more sympathetic to the Nationalist side (on which Gironella himself fought) is gone. Perhaps this is because this book takes place during the war so there are more opportunities to show both terrible violence and acts of heroism from both sides, as well as smaller everyday acts that are neither awful nor heroic. The scales are remarkably balanced, and both sides of the conflict — and the factions within those sides, as the greater scope and variety of characters in this book makes even clearer than did CYPRESSES that the two “sides” of the war were far from united fronts—are shown shown in all their human complexity.
The story still focuses on the people of Gerona and particularly the Alvears. But we also meet many more people and travel to more places, all detailed similarly lovingly and perceptively, perhaps more so because of the higher stakes. The thoughts and motivations of even familiar characters are plumbed more deeply, in part because of what they have already seen and experienced. Thus, my concern with the previous book that religion was overweighted didn’t seem to be the case here, because spend more time with non-religious characters and because even the religious characters have more things to worry about in the midst of the larger conflicts presented here. Religion is still an important theme powerfully presented—which I, as a religious person myself, appreciated—but Gironella is a bit less heavy-handed about it, and gives more detail about what animates the non-religious characters.
I found the writing even more exquisite than in the previous book, but since the translator was different, it’s a bit hard to judge the cause. I think, though, that the heightened stakes of war and the greater emotional resonance caused by watching characters deal with the fallout from the events of the previous book, played a part in this and it wasn’t just due to the individual translator. But of course I can’t say for sure.
On the whole, Gironella has provided a lyrical, haunting portrait of a country he clearly loves at one of the most difficult times in its history. His sadness for the atrocities of the war, and not least for how it tore apart families and forever changed individual people such as his characters, is clear on every page. His recognition of the complexity of each person and of their worth and their impact on the people around them is remarkable. And while the book ends when the war does, things are far from settled, probably partly because Gironella also planned to write about the aftermath of the war (I definitely plan to read the book he wrote about it) but more so, I think, because he recognized that history and individual people’s lives are far too complex, and the horrors of the war were too great, for things to go back to anything like normal anytime soon. So I came to the end of the book not with the satisfaction of a neat resolution, but with a sense of awe for the truly epic story I’d just been told. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book, though I don’t think it will quite match the greatness of this one.
As was the prior novel, this is a remarkable and sympathetic portrait of both sides of a deadly conflict. However, the preceding book’s tendency to be slightly more sympathetic to the Nationalist side (on which Gironella himself fought) is gone. Perhaps this is because this book takes place during the war so there are more opportunities to show both terrible violence and acts of heroism from both sides, as well as smaller everyday acts that are neither awful nor heroic. The scales are remarkably balanced, and both sides of the conflict — and the factions within those sides, as the greater scope and variety of characters in this book makes even clearer than did CYPRESSES that the two “sides” of the war were far from united fronts—are shown shown in all their human complexity.
The story still focuses on the people of Gerona and particularly the Alvears. But we also meet many more people and travel to more places, all detailed similarly lovingly and perceptively, perhaps more so because of the higher stakes. The thoughts and motivations of even familiar characters are plumbed more deeply, in part because of what they have already seen and experienced. Thus, my concern with the previous book that religion was overweighted didn’t seem to be the case here, because spend more time with non-religious characters and because even the religious characters have more things to worry about in the midst of the larger conflicts presented here. Religion is still an important theme powerfully presented—which I, as a religious person myself, appreciated—but Gironella is a bit less heavy-handed about it, and gives more detail about what animates the non-religious characters.
I found the writing even more exquisite than in the previous book, but since the translator was different, it’s a bit hard to judge the cause. I think, though, that the heightened stakes of war and the greater emotional resonance caused by watching characters deal with the fallout from the events of the previous book, played a part in this and it wasn’t just due to the individual translator. But of course I can’t say for sure.
On the whole, Gironella has provided a lyrical, haunting portrait of a country he clearly loves at one of the most difficult times in its history. His sadness for the atrocities of the war, and not least for how it tore apart families and forever changed individual people such as his characters, is clear on every page. His recognition of the complexity of each person and of their worth and their impact on the people around them is remarkable. And while the book ends when the war does, things are far from settled, probably partly because Gironella also planned to write about the aftermath of the war (I definitely plan to read the book he wrote about it) but more so, I think, because he recognized that history and individual people’s lives are far too complex, and the horrors of the war were too great, for things to go back to anything like normal anytime soon. So I came to the end of the book not with the satisfaction of a neat resolution, but with a sense of awe for the truly epic story I’d just been told. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book, though I don’t think it will quite match the greatness of this one.
September 11, 2021
Another masterpiece by Gironella. ONE MILLION DEAD takes the story begun in THE CYPRESSES BELIEVE IN GOD of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and sees it through to the bitter end as Franco liberates Catalonia and then all of Spain.
Gironella deftly switches between the narratives of the surviving characters. There are not many depictions of battle scenes, mostly just the tension leading up to them and restrained descriptions of the chaos of war both at home and at the front lines. New characters arrive in the story to illustrate historical realities. There is a pair of European journalists who allow their sympathy to the Red cause outweigh their journalistic neutrality. Relatives of our protagonist's family in Nationalist territory suffer for association with the Red cause but it is a pale shadow of what the Reds did to anyone they declared a "Fascist." Medical personnel sympathetic to Franco tend to the wounded soldiers in Red-occupied Madrid while working out the conflict in their beliefs and actions.
At one point a character seems to be speaking for the author in expressing their interest not merely in stating the existence of men's actions and atrocities but * why * they do these things. I must concur. Now to find out how the trilogy concludes... in PEACE AFTER WAR.
Gironella deftly switches between the narratives of the surviving characters. There are not many depictions of battle scenes, mostly just the tension leading up to them and restrained descriptions of the chaos of war both at home and at the front lines. New characters arrive in the story to illustrate historical realities. There is a pair of European journalists who allow their sympathy to the Red cause outweigh their journalistic neutrality. Relatives of our protagonist's family in Nationalist territory suffer for association with the Red cause but it is a pale shadow of what the Reds did to anyone they declared a "Fascist." Medical personnel sympathetic to Franco tend to the wounded soldiers in Red-occupied Madrid while working out the conflict in their beliefs and actions.
At one point a character seems to be speaking for the author in expressing their interest not merely in stating the existence of men's actions and atrocities but * why * they do these things. I must concur. Now to find out how the trilogy concludes... in PEACE AFTER WAR.
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December 9, 2024Me lo leía todos los veranos desde los 11 hasta los 23
March 22, 2018
No está al nivel de "Los cipreses creen en Dios" pero la intensidad que Gironella muestra en la narración de la Guerra Civil y su aplastante equidistancia hacen que esta novela sea quizá la que mejor muestra los horrores de aquella guerra fratricida de analfabetos.
Para más información quien quiera puede visitar mi blog de literatura: http://libros-y-cine-nada-mas.blogspo...
Para más información quien quiera puede visitar mi blog de literatura: http://libros-y-cine-nada-mas.blogspo...
April 24, 2011
One Million Dead picks up a few hours after the narrative of The Cypresses Believe in God leaves off, a week in to the Spanish Civil War, and it runs through to the end of the war on April 1st, 1939. It's a more sprawling narrative than Cypresses, and as a result somewhat less personal in scope, though the characters we met in Cypresses continue on and are joined by many others.
Gironella's aim in the novel was to write about what the civil war did to Spain, on both sides of the battle lines. His heart is clearly with the Spanish culture which too many of the Republicans were happy to put before a firing squad, but at the same time Gironella's narrative primarily focuses on the human ties that span ideology -- and the extent to which ideology is the refuge and conduit for those seeking to turn to hate rather than to human sympathy. Among the most interesting characters on both sides are those who are consistently willing to put friendship above ideology, and on both side the most tragic characters are those who turn themselves wholehearted over to the conflict and allow it to corrupt them and empty their souls.
Gironella's aim in the novel was to write about what the civil war did to Spain, on both sides of the battle lines. His heart is clearly with the Spanish culture which too many of the Republicans were happy to put before a firing squad, but at the same time Gironella's narrative primarily focuses on the human ties that span ideology -- and the extent to which ideology is the refuge and conduit for those seeking to turn to hate rather than to human sympathy. Among the most interesting characters on both sides are those who are consistently willing to put friendship above ideology, and on both side the most tragic characters are those who turn themselves wholehearted over to the conflict and allow it to corrupt them and empty their souls.
November 22, 2014
La crítica es similar a la de Los Cipreses: demasiado largo, personajes que tienen poca vida y que son tan numerosos que te pierdes (aunque esta vez JMP te ayuda con una lista de 20 páginas de los personajes). Es una pena porque el tema es fascinante, esta vez estamos en la guerra, y muy bien presentado. JMG nos muestra los dos lados con el intento de ser equilibrado (aunque Guernica esta presentado como un incidente sin consecuencias). Lo que muestra bien es el dolor en ambos lados. También muestra bien el follón que sigue del lado “rojo” frente a la disciplina del lado “nacional”. Supongo que como Franco consiguió hacer un país unido después de la guerra será en el libro siguiente pero si son otra vez 800 páginas, no lo comprare.
April 17, 2024
Me mandaron leer este libro para Historia en el cole. Había leído antes el primero y la verdad es que este me ha gustado más. Toda la trama de la Guerra Civil y las luchas de los personajes me han enganchado mucho más.
Además el punto de vista es bastante imparcial y te permite disfrutar de la historia desde ambos bandos por igual.
Además el punto de vista es bastante imparcial y te permite disfrutar de la historia desde ambos bandos por igual.
September 1, 2024
Un trilogía que marcó mí juventud.
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April 23, 2018Continuación de la trilogía iniciada con Los cipreses creen en Dios. Narra las peripecias de los miembros de una familia, la familia Alvear, a lo largo de la Guerra Civil, ilustrando los lances tanto dramáticos como emotivos con relación a los dos bandos.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews