The Hive - Camilo José Cela - A Partial History of Certain Disordered Pages - Foreword

Oct 5, 2026

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A biographical and literary preface frames Camilo José Cela’s The Hive, tracing the author’s life experiences—childhood in Galicia, tuberculosis and time in a mountain sanatorium, involvement in the Spanish Civil War, and political censorship—leading to the novel’s controversial reception and later ban and publication abroad. It also introduces the translator James Womack and sets the work’s autobiographical, satirical tone through a narrator’s reflections on childhood, misbehavior, and the book’s gradual settling into its final form.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages258

Reading Time6 h 37 min

AccessFree to download

Biographical Notes

Author’s Prefaces

A Partial History of Certain Disordered Pages

CAMILO JOSÉ CELA (1916–2002) was born in the Galician town of Iria Flavia and enjoyed an early childhood so idyllic that he claimed that he dreaded the mere thought of growing up. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in his teens, Cela spent two years in a mountain sanitorium outside of Madrid, where he began to read widely. During the Spanish Civil War he fought on the Nationalist side and after the war briefly held a position as a Francoist censor. Yet the first of his many novels, The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942)—a book that has sold more copies than any work of Spanish fiction except Don Quixote—was chastised by conservatives for its immorality, and The Hive was banned from publication in Spain, first appearing in Argentina in 1951. In addition to writing novels, short stories, travelogues, plays, essays, a dictionary of slang and obscenities, and an encyclopedia of eroticism, Cela was a draftsman and a painter and also appeared in several films, including Mario Camus’s adaptation of The Hive. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989. JAMES WOMACK is a poet and a translator from the Russian and Spanish. His most recent poetry collection, Homunculus, was published by Carcanet in 2020. His translations include Manuel Vilas’s Heaven and a collection of poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky. THE HIVE CAMILO JOSÉ CELA Translatedfrom the Spanish by JAMES WOMACK NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS New York THIS IS ANEW YORK REVIEW BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 [www.nyrb.com](www.nyrb.com) Copyright © 2002 by the Estate of Camilo José Cela Translation copyright © 2023 by James Womack All rights reserved. Published in the Spanish language as La Colmena. First published as a New York Review Books Classic in 2023. Cover image: Laxeiro (Xosé Otero Abeledo), The Farce, 1968; the ABANCA Collection of Art; © 2021 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid Cover design: Katy Homans Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cela, Camilo José, 1916–2002, author. | Womack, James William, 1979– translator. Title: The hive / by Camilo José Cela; translated by James Womack. Other titles: Colmena. English Description: New York: New York Review Books, [2022] | Series: New York Review Books classics Identifiers: LCCN 2021050423 (print) | LCCN 2021050424 (ebook) | ISBN 9781681376158 (paperback) | ISBN 9781681376165 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Novels. Classification: LCC PQ6605.E44 C613 2022 (print) | LCC PQ6605.E44 (ebook) | DDC 863/.64—dc23 LC record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050423](https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050423) LC ebook record available at [https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050424](https://lccn.loc.gov/2021050424) ISBN 978-1-68137-616-5 v1.0 CONTENTS Cover Biographical Notes Copyright and More Information Title Page Author ’s Prefaces THE HIVE A PARTIAL HISTORY OF CERTAIN DISORDERED PAGES THIS BOOK ’S first youth was noticeably stormy. There are children who, when one sees them running around all over the place, make one suspect that they were born with a knot of lizard tails for a heart, and that through their veins there flows not blood but a constantly escaping gobbet of mercury; the best thing to do is leave them alone and wait for them to stop all by themselves, overcome by tiredness and the passage of time. In this case, with several years gone by, and looking back over its strange initial behavior, I realize that this book is finally settling down. It’s about time this happened because when it was younger, it did nothing apart from upset its father (that is, me) . When children turn out to be thoughtless or wicked, their parents’ reaction—a defense instinct kicking in—is to blame the company they keep.“My son’s a good lad,” we say to anyone who is kind enough to listen. “I mean, sure, he did come across a couple of old ladies knitting outside in the sun and beat them to death; and, yes, he chopped th

FAQs

Who wrote and translated The Hive in this edition?

Camilo José Cela is the author. James Womack translated the work from Spanish.

What early experiences influenced Camilo José Cela’s writing career?

He was diagnosed with tuberculosis as a teenager and spent two years in a mountain sanatorium, where he began reading widely. He also experienced the Spanish Civil War and later censorship-related conflicts.

Why was The Hive banned in Spain?

It faced condemnation for immorality and was banned from publication in Spain, with first appearance in Argentina in 1951.

Oct 5, 2026

Upload by Fahsai