Status Updates From Madrid: A New Biography

From the reign of Carlos III to the death of Franco are two centuries of enormous upheaval and conflict, of change and suffering, and of the survival and reinvention of a great city. These are remarkable years, at the end of which Madrid emerged, with a shout and a scream, and came roaring back into the world.

Image and reality battled together in baroque Madrid, a constant interplay of truth and falsehood: the world as theatre, in which nothing was quite as it seems, and theatre as a representation of the world.

“I told myself I was going to Madrid where nobody knew me…and I would get on through my own merits…in Madrid you can find all types, half-wits and sharp minds, the very rich and the very poor. The city hides criminals and a good man’s qualities are not appreciated…We live by our wits.”
- Francisco de Quevedo, The Swindler

“It was right that so great a Monarchy should have a city which could function as its heart—a vital centre in the midst of the body, which ministered equally to every State in time of peace and war.”
- Luis Cabrera de Córdoba

“Madrid is a strange place…I do not believe anyone much likes it when he first goes there. It has none of the look that you expect of Spain…when you get to know it, it is the most Spanish of all cities, the best to live in, the finest people, month in and month out the finest climate.”
- Ernest Hemingway