Federico Garcia Lorca and the Public

by Rafael Martínez Nadal

A Study of an Unfinished Play and of Love and Death in Lorca's Work.

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Remy · Rating 4 out of 5]

"For Lorca, lover of life, all was a question of form. But he was also aware that life is a constant shedding of dead forms in an uninterrupted march towards total death."

"All the work of Lorca reflects this amorous attitude.
In the book of his adolescent
"Love and mercy and respect towards everybody will lead us to the ideal kingdom"'

"My love for others, my deep love for an inter-penetration with people"

[Karl Kraus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was born of frustration: first, Martinez Nadal's search for one of the possibly two definitive manuscripts of the play -- none has ever been found -- and second, the Lorca heirs' stubborn refusal to allow him (or anyone) to publish the surviving draft in his possession. The official excuse was the hope that one of the definitive manuscripts might resurface . . . as if a preliminary draft of a lost play would lose its value upon the recovery of a definitive one. (More likely the heirs were squeamish about the play's unusually frank homosexual content: this goes way beyond anything in *Poeta en Nueva York*.) One catches an additional whiff of bad blood too: for whatever reason Lorca scholars up to this point, and for several years afterward, seemed to take care not to mention Martinez Nadal's existence. So what we have is that uncommon phenomenon in Lit Crit: a thorough analysis, with liberal quotation, of a work of literature that could not be published, and written by someone who we might suspect to have been an outsider or outcast or even a fraud who somehow came into possession of a crucial manuscript . . . the kind of thing that you'd expect as the basis for a novel. But this is the real thing.

The present monograph first appeared, in Spanish, in 1970; the English translation followed in 1974, with slightly different titles depending on whether the publisher was English or American. Perhaps the existence and propagation of this monograph forced the Lorca heirs' hand, for they relented and allowed the publication of a facsimile and transcription of the surviving manuscript (London: Dolphin, 1976, as the second of three volumes of Lorca autographs in Martinez Nadal's possession) . . . one of the most cherished volumes on my bookshelves.

Additional publications, as well as translations, performances, and even a derived opera followed, but Martinez Nadal's study remains a significant contribution to Lorca scholarship. In addition to being an extensive, coherent, and lucid explication of the play, Martinez Nadal's monograph offers substantial essays on major themes in Lorca's work -- love, death, horses -- as well as an essay on Lorca's theater. One might then suspect that we have two monographs in one volume -- a study of *El Publico* and a general study -- except that an appreciation of the themes examined in the latter part (and honestly, don't love and death encompass just about everything?) enhances one's appreciation of *El Publico* and clarifies much of its imagery, which is either so deeply steeped in Andalusian culture as to be difficult for outsiders to understand, or outright surrealistic, or both. In short, an essential monograph.

[Tommy]

I really enjoy Lorca. And I respect Nadal. I'm sure this book was a godsend to Lorca scholars before "The Public" was made available. But it's available now.