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La bruja de Sanlúcar
Tras el hallazgo de un libro olvidado, escrito hace casi un siglo por un misterioso viajero alemán, y después de un laborioso proceso de traducción en el que fue apareciendo, escena tras escena, un maravilloso fresco de la ciudad de Sanlúcar del siglo XIX, vuelve a la vida una leyenda desaparecida de la vieja Sanlúcar, con personajes que nos asombrará reconocer, de una forma extraña, en lo más profundo de nuestro subconsciente.
En el mítico entorno de Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Lola, la gitana, "La gatita de Bonanza" y Antonio "el Mordido", dos personajes también de dimensiones míticas, descubren el amor. Se trata de un amor prohibido y por ello se enfrentarán a la comunidad y a los elementos naturales que parecen confabulados en su contra. La historia desembocará en un final que el lector no olvidará nunca.
Esta pequeña joya literaria, de gran carga simbólica y poética, publicada por primera vez desde la única edición en alemán de 1925 y nunca traducida al español, quedará indisolublemente vinculada, enriqueciéndolo, al patrimonio cultural de Sanlúcar de Barrameda y a la literatura en general.
Esta es la leyenda de La Bruja de Sanlúcar.
En el mítico entorno de Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Lola, la gitana, "La gatita de Bonanza" y Antonio "el Mordido", dos personajes también de dimensiones míticas, descubren el amor. Se trata de un amor prohibido y por ello se enfrentarán a la comunidad y a los elementos naturales que parecen confabulados en su contra. La historia desembocará en un final que el lector no olvidará nunca.
Esta pequeña joya literaria, de gran carga simbólica y poética, publicada por primera vez desde la única edición en alemán de 1925 y nunca traducida al español, quedará indisolublemente vinculada, enriqueciéndolo, al patrimonio cultural de Sanlúcar de Barrameda y a la literatura en general.
Esta es la leyenda de La Bruja de Sanlúcar.
88 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2017
1 person want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 12, 2020
I got this book because it's set in my hometown - Sanlúcar de Barrameda - so I got curious, but I found out a wonderful short novel that should be studied in universities as sample of literary symbolism and expresionism.
This author is virtualy unknown. For what is said in the prologue of the book, it could be a pseudonym for Hanns Heinz Ewers (known for beeing close to Nazis and for his short stories, that have been reedited recently in several countries).
It is known that Ewers was in the south of Spain for some time and the author of this book could have been travelling with him too.
In any case, the novel depicts a 19th century's Sanlúcar that shows a deep knowledge about how the town was: both for his descriptions of the landscapes and this descriptions of the local customs and habits of the place; so, either he visited for a long period this town or he was even living here for some time, which would make sense, since Sanlúcar was the summer holiday place for wealthy people from Seville in those days.
This story is a DRAMA, a stormy tempestous love story full of brutality and tragedy from the beginning () to its end - you can imagine.... But the most striking thing is the beautiful symbolism this novel is loaded with.
Those years, after Germany being defeated in the war, many German authors looked back to leyends, nature, countryside and pureness of human being behaviour, that they got always attached to tragedy, mixed with religious or supernatural forces.
All this is seen in the figure of the main character, Lola, who is a free natural woman, target of all men's desire and all women's envy. She is accused of sorcery and of bewitching men with her dancing. The society around her "must" stop this unnatural devilish woman, so they can get back the natural peace in their lives.
This is a new representation of the ancient myth of Eros and Thanatos incarnated in the main characters, Lola and Antonio, dragged to their fate by bigger forces (represented by different sides of society of those times that in fact act as impersonal forces - representations of divine stronger laws - and confronting those laws is paid with death).
Symbol for this conflic may seen in many ways:
The main literary trends of those ages are collected this novel, but also the quality of the writing relies on the flow of the narration, swiching in a very natural -and almost unnoticeable way- from a third person narration years after the events happened to the subjective view of the protagonists of the tragedy almost in a first person point of view.
It's clearly visible the resemblance with some stories of Maupassant or leyends of the Spanish writer Bécquer. Also I come to wonder if the worldwide reputated Spanish playwriter and poet, Federico García Lorca, would know this story, given the similarities with some of his plays writen years after this novel or even if this were a popular southern leyend that served as inspiration for both authors.
There must be a mention to the translator, because I didn't read the original German version of the novel, but certainly it wasn't an easy job to translate this story and keeping the meaning and beauty of the symbols intented in the original version.
This author is virtualy unknown. For what is said in the prologue of the book, it could be a pseudonym for Hanns Heinz Ewers (known for beeing close to Nazis and for his short stories, that have been reedited recently in several countries).
It is known that Ewers was in the south of Spain for some time and the author of this book could have been travelling with him too.
In any case, the novel depicts a 19th century's Sanlúcar that shows a deep knowledge about how the town was: both for his descriptions of the landscapes and this descriptions of the local customs and habits of the place; so, either he visited for a long period this town or he was even living here for some time, which would make sense, since Sanlúcar was the summer holiday place for wealthy people from Seville in those days.
This story is a DRAMA, a stormy tempestous love story full of brutality and tragedy from the beginning () to its end - you can imagine.... But the most striking thing is the beautiful symbolism this novel is loaded with.
Those years, after Germany being defeated in the war, many German authors looked back to leyends, nature, countryside and pureness of human being behaviour, that they got always attached to tragedy, mixed with religious or supernatural forces.
All this is seen in the figure of the main character, Lola, who is a free natural woman, target of all men's desire and all women's envy. She is accused of sorcery and of bewitching men with her dancing. The society around her "must" stop this unnatural devilish woman, so they can get back the natural peace in their lives.
This is a new representation of the ancient myth of Eros and Thanatos incarnated in the main characters, Lola and Antonio, dragged to their fate by bigger forces (represented by different sides of society of those times that in fact act as impersonal forces - representations of divine stronger laws - and confronting those laws is paid with death).
Symbol for this conflic may seen in many ways:
The main literary trends of those ages are collected this novel, but also the quality of the writing relies on the flow of the narration, swiching in a very natural -and almost unnoticeable way- from a third person narration years after the events happened to the subjective view of the protagonists of the tragedy almost in a first person point of view.
It's clearly visible the resemblance with some stories of Maupassant or leyends of the Spanish writer Bécquer. Also I come to wonder if the worldwide reputated Spanish playwriter and poet, Federico García Lorca, would know this story, given the similarities with some of his plays writen years after this novel or even if this were a popular southern leyend that served as inspiration for both authors.
There must be a mention to the translator, because I didn't read the original German version of the novel, but certainly it wasn't an easy job to translate this story and keeping the meaning and beauty of the symbols intented in the original version.
September 21, 2025
Andalucía profunda
July 5, 2022
Cortita y muy interesante.
December 31, 2025
El título es La bruja de Sanlúcar
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews