Editing Mercè Rodoreda (section)

===Exile (1938-1972)===
On January 23, 1939, a few months before the defeat of the Republicans, she fled into exile. Thinking that the separation would be brief, she left her son with her mother.<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Chronology (1939-1953) |url=http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=312&languageId=1&contentId=-1 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-07-19 |archive-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930130717/http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=312&languageId=1&contentId=-1 }}</ref> Although she had never participated in politics, she left on the advice of her mother, who feared problems due to collaborative activities with Catalan publications and some left-wing magazines in previous years. Along with other intellectuals of the time, she went from Barcelona to Gerona with a [[bookmobile]] owned by the Ministry of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia, then she followed the path through Mas Perxés, in the municipality of [[Agullana]], until crossing the administrative border by [[Le Perthus]] and entered [[Northern Catalonia]] on January 30. After spending the night in [[Le Boulou]], they went to [[Perpignan]]; where they spent three days and then traveled to [[Toulouse]] by train.<ref name="mercè1">{{Cite web |title=L'exili francès: París |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaGirona/article/view/118583/151768 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|The war was over, and we had to leave Spain. Me, not for nothing, because I had never been in politics, but the fact of having written in Catalan, and for having collaborated in magazines, let's say on the left, etcetera, etcetera. And advised by my mother, because I left thinking that after three, four or five months I would return home, but then it became eternal.<ref>Mercè Rodoreda i Joaquín Soler Serrano (1981). 'A fondo' (Producción Televisiva). Televisión Española. Dura 00:29:13 - 00:29:49.</ref>|Mercè Rodoreda in the interview ''A fondo'' (1981)}}

====Roissy-en-Brie====
She arrived in the [[Paris|French capital]] at the end of February and in early April she moved to [[Roissy-en-Brie]], a town near the east of the capital. She settled in the castle of Roissy-en-Brie, an 18th-century building, which was offered as a refuge for writers.<ref name="mercè1" /> She shared a home for a few months with other intellectuals such as [[Anna Murià]], César Augusto Jordana, Armand Obiols, [[Francesc Trabal]] and [[Carles Riba]].<ref name=":8" />

In Roissy-en-Brie several love affairs arose; one of them was between Mercè Rodoreda and Armand Obiols. The problems in the castle arose because Armand Obiols was married to Francesc Trabal's sister and they had a son, who had remained in Barcelona with his mother.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Murià |first=Anna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTJxsK_RKekC&q=Reflexions+de+la+vellesa++Merc%C3%A8+Rodoreda&pg=PA42 |title=Reflexions de la vellesa |date=2003 |publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat |isbn=978-84-8415-476-1 |language=ca}}</ref> Furthermore, Armand Obiols' mother-in-law had traveled with Trabal to Roissy-en-Brie along with other members of the Trabal family.<ref name=":10" /> Consequently, this affair divided the Catalan exiles into two opposing camps.<ref name=":10" /> According to Anna Murià, Francesc Trabal was opposed not only by his sister but by jealousy, since he would have had a secret relationship with Mercè Rodoreda in Barcelona that only the two of them and their confidante knew.<ref name=":10" /> Rodoreda wanted to write a book about it called The Roissy novel, however, she never decided to do it.<ref name=":10" />

The atmosphere of stability offered by the castle was disturbed by the start of [[World War II]]. At that time, some decided to flee to [[Latin America]]n countries and others preferred to stay in France; this last destination was the one chosen by Rodoreda and Obiols.<ref name=":8" /> Later they moved to the Villa Rosset house, on the outskirts of the city.<ref name="mercè1" />

====Escaping from the Nazi troops====
[[File:Pont jour.jpg|thumb|The [[Beaugency]] bridge, where Rodoreda crossed the Loire River.|right]]

Mercè Rodoreda, along with other writers who were still taking refuge in France, had to flee from Paris in mid-June 1940 due to the advance of the Germans army going in the direction of [[Orléans]] by way of [[Artenay]]. Josep Maria Esverd was able to get a truck to flee France; however, the next day the truck was requisitioned by French troops. After an unsuccessful attempt to catch a train, they had to flee south on foot. The objective was to cross the [[Loire|Loire River]] in order to enter the unoccupied area, but shortly before reaching Orleans it was found on fire and there was no bridge left on that stretch of the Loire River; consequently, they deviated from the fixed route.<ref name="mercè1" />

{{blockquote|So we started the retreat on foot for three weeks. We spent about three weeks fleeing from the Nazis and walking on French roads [...] We passed over a bridge to Beaugency, which was being mined by French gunners. It was an afternoon with a very dark and very low sky. The Germans began to bombard the bridge with scary stukes; and you could see the bombs falling and exploding nearby. [...] There were dead people on the bridge. Something terrible! So, we headed to Orleans, thinking we could rest there for a day or two, but when we got to see Orleans ... Orleans was on fire, because it had just been bombed. It was then that we slept in a country house that smelled of bad meat and sour wine, because it was evident that many people had passed by that house; and we slept there all night watching from the windows how Orleans burned.<ref>Mercè Rodoreda i Joaquín Soler Serrano (1981). 'A fondo' (Producción Televisiva). Televisión Española. Dura 00:35:14 - 00:36:46.</ref> |Mercè Rodoreda in the interview ''A fondo'' (1981)}}

For twelve days they were sheltered in a farm until the signing of the [[armistice of 22 June 1940]], after they crossed the Loire River through the town of [[Meung-sur-Loire]], which was completely destroyed. From there they traveled even further south, this time settling in [[Limoges]].<ref name="mercè1" />

====Limoges-Bordeaux====
In Limoges, she settled in a room at 12 Hijas-Notre-Dame street. These were difficult times for Rodoreda, because on June 5, 1941, her partner Armand Obiols was arrested, and she was left alone until October of that year.<ref name="mercè1" /> During that time Armand Obiols had to do forced labor in [[Saillat-sur-Vienne]] in a [[quarry]]. However, several efforts by Rodoreda got him to be sent to [[Bordeaux]].<ref name=":11" /> When Obiols was already in better living conditions in Bordeaux, Rodoreda became involved in a study circle dedicated to reading and learning the [[English language]].<ref name="mercè1" />

During the following months, the relationship between Mercè Rodoreda and Armand Obiols was mostly at a distance, and only sporadically could they see each other in person. It was not until the end of August 1943 that Rodoreda moved to number 43 ''Chauffours'' street in Bordeaux where she was reunited with her lover. In Bordeaux she lived very hard times and, in her words, she sewed "until dirty" in a warehouse for much of the day, a job that did not leave her time to write.<ref name="mercè1" />

{{blockquote|I have made blouses for nine French people and I have been very hungry. I have met very interesting people and the coat I am wearing was inherited from a Russian Jewish woman who committed suicide with Veronal. In Limoges they kept an ovary of mine but what I will not leave in France will be neither my energy nor my youth, until I am fifty I intend to preserve a certain refined genre [...] And, above all, I want to write, I need to write; nothing has given me so much pleasure since I was in the world, as a freshly edited book of mine smelling of fresh ink. I'm sorry I didn't come with you, I would have felt more accompanied, I would have worked, all these useless, demoralizing years weigh on me, but I will take revenge. I will make them useful, stimulating my enemies to tremble. On the slightest occasion I will do a Sicilian horse entry again. There will be no one to stop me.<ref name="Catalunya" /> |Mercè Rodoreda, excerpt from the letter to [[Anna Murià]] (Bordeaux, December 19, 1945)}}

====Paris====
The return to Paris took place in September 1946 when Rodoreda and Obiols moved to the house of Rafael Tasis in exile, the house was located at number 9  ''Coëtlogon'' street. A short time later, the couple moved to the sixth floor of number 21 on ''Cherche-Midi'' street, in the residential area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which was a meeting place for many intellectuals of the time. This was her home for eight years and, in fact, she did not fully disengage until 1977.<ref name="mercè1" />

At the beginning of 1947, she was able to leave her job as a seamstress to go back to work as a collaborator in the magazine ''Revista de Catalunya''. Apart from publishing narrations during that year in the various editions of the magazine, she was also able to publish some in [[Chile]] and [[Mexico]].<ref name="mercè1" />

From 1947 to 1953, Mercè Rodoreda was unable to cultivate extensive literature because just in 1945 she had begun to suffer from health problems, along with the reappearance of somatic paralysis in her right arm. For this reason, she intensified her poetic creation and found her teacher in [[Josep Carner]], with whom she maintained a close relationship by correspondence. In 1952, she began recovery therapy at the [[Châtel-Guyon]] spa.<ref name=":8" /> During the years that she was in Paris, she also began two novels that she did not finish.<ref name="mercè1" />

In 1947, during the [[Floral Games |Floral Games of the Catalan Language]] held in London, she won her first Natural Flower with six [[sonnet]]s: ''Rosa'', ''Amor novell'', ''Adam a Eva'', ''Ocell'' and two more untitled sonnets.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rodoreda |first=Mercè |date=1984 |title=Mercè Rodoreda: Obra poètica |url=https://raco.cat/index.php/Marges/article/view/111320 |journal=Marges, Els: Revista de llengua i literatura |pages=55–71 |issn=2339-8256}}</ref> With the poem ''Món d'Ulisses'', Rodoreda won for the second time the Natural Flower of the Floral Games of 1948 in [[Paris]], a poem that was published in the magazine ''La Nostra Revista'' that same year.<ref>Rodoreda Gurguí, Mercè "Món d'Ulisses". La Nostra Revista, numbers. 35-36, Novembre-Desembre 1948, page. 367.</ref> ''Albes i nits'' gave her the third victory in the Floral Games contest and, consequently, she was named "''Mestre en Gai Saber''" in [[Montevideo]] in 1949.<ref>Rodoreda Gurguí, Mercè "''Albes i nits''". La Nostra Revista, numbers. 45, 30-IX-1949, page. 284.</ref> That same year she visited Barcelona for the first time after exile.

In 1951, she also approached [[painting]], interested above all in painters such as [[Pablo Picasso]], [[Paul Klee]] and [[Joan Miró]], and she made some of her own creations. In a 1954 letter to Armand Oriols she explains that she already had a "style and a world" in painting, yet she acknowledged that her place was in writing.<ref name="mercè1" /> On the other hand, Obiols, began to work as a translator for [[UNESCO]] thanks to Quiroga Plá, and two years later, in 1953, he permanently moved to [[Geneva]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Virgili |first=Antoni Rovira i |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gAsRtWzBWREC&q=Armand+Obiols+UNESCO&pg=PA427 |title=Cartes de l'exili, 1939-1949 |date=2002 |publisher=L'Abadia de Montserrat |isbn=978-84-8415-406-8 |language=ca}}</ref>

====Geneva====
In 1954, Rodoreda and Obiols moved into an apartment at 19 Violet street, in a bourgeois neighborhood in the city of Geneva. In this city, she always felt exiled and even recognized that Geneva "is a very boring city, suitable for writing".<ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=L'eclosió literària Ginebra |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaGirona/article/view/118584/151769 }}</ref> Shortly after, Obiols had to move to [[Vienna]] for work reasons. That same year, Rodoreda made a trip to Barcelona to attend the wedding of her son, Jordi Gurguí i Rodoreda.<ref name=":12" />

{{blockquote|I live in a very nice studio, above a park, with a seven-story house in front of it, but quite far away. On the one hand a piece of lake, and on the other, the [[Salève]]. From my terrace, you can see a pretty ugly mountain, because it has many bold spots and it looks like it was sick. When the day is clear, I see the top of [[Mont Blanc]].<ref name=":13"/>|Mercè Rodoreda, interview by [[Baltasar Porcel]] to Mercè Rodoreda (1972)}}

In 1956, she won the Joan Maragall Essay Prize with ''Three Sonnets and a Song'' that was published in the literary supplement ''La Gaceta de Letras de La Nova Revista (1955-1958)''.<ref>Rodoreda Gurguí, Mercè "''Tres sonets i una cançó''". La Nova Revista, number. 6, Juliol-Agost 1956, page. 21-22</ref> Likewise, for her story ''Carnaval'' she was awarded the Joan Santamaria Prize in Barcelona that same year.<ref name=":12" />

In 1958 the book of short stories written under the name of ''Twenty-two short stories'' was published which, a year earlier, had received the prestigious Victor Català Prize.<ref name=":14">{{Cite web |title=Chronology - 1954-1959 |url=http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=313&languageId=1&contentId=-1 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-07-26 |archive-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930130729/http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=313&languageId=1&contentId=-1 }}</ref> Some of these stories had already been published in [[Mexico]] during her exile in France, while others were unpublished. As the author confessed, this book came from a technical crisis that led to an unequal literary level among the various stories, although they were tied by a thematic unit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Arnau |first=Carme |date=1974 |title=Una segona edició "en veu baixa": 'Vint-i-dos contes', de Mercè Rodoreda |url=https://raco.cat/index.php/Marges/article/view/93593 |journal=Marges, Els: Revista de llengua i literatura |pages=105–114 |issn=2339-8256}}</ref>

According to some unpublished annotations that spoke of Geneva, Rodoreda revealed that during those years she saw writers such as [[Eugeni Xammar]], [[Julio Cortázar]] and his wife, and [[Jorge Semprún]].<ref name=":13" />

During her long stay in Geneva, she created a garden that she would later replicate in [[Romanyà de la Selva]]. The many flowers that surrounded her served as inspiration to portray the flowers that would end up making up ''Real Flowers'' within ''Viatges i Flors'', along with the trips that she would write in Romanyà;<ref name=":13" /> however, this book was not published until 1980.

''La Perla del Lago'' was the title of a potential novel by the author that remained incomplete, and was kept in the archives of the Institute of Catalan Studies. The title is the name of a restaurant on the shore of [[Lake Geneva]] in a corner of Geneva that she frequented. It was a location near the United Nations building where the author regularly ate, and from where she had a great view in the dining room on the upper floors. As described in the prologue of ''Broken Mirror'', the eyes of the protagonist Teresa Goday de Valldaura were the same as the lady of Lemán.<ref name=":13" />

In 1958, she submitted ''Una mica d'història'' (''A bit of history'') for the [[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la|Joanot Martorell Prize]], although she did not win but Ricard Salvat did with "''Animals destroying laws''"; however, this novel was published in 1967 this time under the title ''Garden by the Sea''. She also wrote the short story ''Ron Negrita'' for the volume "''The 7 Deadly Sins Seen by 21 Storytellers''", although it would later become part of the volume "''It looked like silk and other stories''". From 1958 onwards, and without breaking up with Rodoreda, Obiols maintained a relationship with a woman in Geneva until his death.<ref name=":12" />

In 1959, Rodoreda began to write the novel that was possibly the best of her career ''[[The Time of the Doves]]'' (''Colometa''), published in 1962 as ''[[La plaça del Diamant]]'' for ''El Club de los Novelistas''.<ref name=":14" /><ref name=":15">{{Cite web |title=Chronology - 1960-1970 |url=http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=314&languageId=1&contentId=-1 |url-status=dead |access-date=2021-07-27 |archive-date=2010-09-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930130747/http://www.mercerodoreda.cat/gc/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=314&languageId=1&contentId=-1 }}</ref> In 1960, she submitted the novel to the ''[[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la]]'', previously known as the Joanot Martorell Prize, however, she did not win but the Enric Massó y Urgellès prize was won with her novel ''Vivir es no facil'' (''Living is not easy''). Joan Fuster also sent her to 'The Novelists Club', which at that time was run by [[Joan Sales i Vallès|Joan Sales]]. Sales was delighted by the novel and started a correspondence with Rodoreda.<ref name=":15" /> From that moment, she found in the Editor Club a space where she could pour her literary work, where Salas was a co-founder.<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Rodoreda, Mercè {{!}} Corpus Literari Ciutat de Barcelona'' |date=8 May 2020 |url=https://www.joanducros.net/rodoreda-merce/ |access-date=2021-07-27 |language=ca}}</ref> When it was published in 1962, the novel was not exactly the one that had been presented for the Sant Jordi prize, but it had received an extension both in chapters and in corrections by Salas, Obiols and the author herself.<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title=''Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta'' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:20:28 - 00:20:52 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref>

{{blockquote|Explaining the genesis of ''La Plaza del Diamante'' might be interesting, but is it possible to explain how a novel is formed, what impulses provoke it, how strong a will does it make it continue, that what has been done has to end with a struggle? Started easily? Would it be enough to say that I was thinking of it in Geneva looking at the Salève mountain or walking through La Perla del Lago? [...] I wrote it feverishly, as if every working day was the last of my life. I worked blinded; I would correct what I had written in the morning in the afternoon, ensuring that, despite the rush with which I was writing, the horse would not run out of control, holding the reins well so that it did not deviate from the path. [...] It was a time of great nervous tension, which left me half ill.<ref name=":13"/> |Mercè Rodoreda, prologue to ''La plaça del Diamant'' (26th edition)}}

In 1961, she sent another work to the same award, ''[[Death in Spring]]'', which did not win either, but rather it was [[Josep Maria Espinàs]] with ''The Last Landing'' who was victorious.

In 1965, Rodoreda took the first steps in the publication of her Complete Works after a request from Joaquim Molas, however they would not be published in Ediciones 62 until 1977. The work did not include any of her first four works (''I am an honest woman?'', ''What cannot escape'', ''A day in the life of a man'' and ''Crime'') because she considered that they were the result of her inexperience and she agreed to rewrite ''Aloma'' to adapt it to the level of her current work; and that it would be reissued in 1969.<ref name=":15" />

In 1966, her mother, Montserrat Gurguí, died; and three years later her uncle-husband, Joan Gurguí. As a result of the death of her husband, the relationship between mother and son was strained due to problems with the distribution of the inheritance.<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title = 'Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:22:56 - 00:25:00 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref> However, in 1966 was the year in which ''La calle de las Camelias'' was published that received the [[Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la|Sant Jordi Prize]] without her having submitted a candidacy; This fact was used for the direction to decide to award a work already published. With this same novel she also received the ''Serra d'Or Critical Prize for Literature and Essay'' in 1967, and the [[Ramon Llull Novel Award]] in 1969.<ref name=":17">{{Cite web |title=Mercè Rodoreda |url=https://www.escriptors.cat/autors/rodoredam |access-date=2021-07-27 |website=Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana |language=ca}}</ref> In 1967, she began working on the novel ''Broken Mirror'', which years later would become one of the most successful works of the author. ''Broken mirror'' was the result of the reworking of the play ''A day'' that had not been able to premiere. She also published two works: ''Garden by the Sea'' and a collection of stories entitled ''My Cristina and other stories''.

From 1970 onwards, her work began to be translated into other languages, though her first translated work was ''La Plaza del Diamante'' in Spanish in 1965.<ref name=":15" /> In 1971, her feeling of exile was accentuated with the death of her companion of many years, Armand Obiols, at the Vienna University Hospital. This fact, together with the discovery of another Obiols lover, left her even more alone and broken in Switzerland. During those days, she wrote a shocking little card about the hard days she spent in the hospital; currently, this card is kept in the archives of the [[Institute for Catalan Studies|IEC]].<ref>{{cite video |people = Josep M. Gurguí, Margarida Puig, Isabel Parés, Montserrat Casals, Núria Folch, Pere Gimferrer, Josep Maria Castellet |year = 2008 |title = 'Mercè Rodoreda, vida secreta' |medium = Producció Televisiva |publisher = [[TV3 (Catalonia)|TV3]] |time = 00:25:07 - 00:27:55 }}<!-- |director= Joan Úbeda --></ref> Consequently, after the reunion with some friends from the time of the Civil War, she decided to settle in 1972 in Carmen Manrubia's chalet in Romanyà de la Selva, without ceasing to reside in Geneva, albeit more and more sporadically.<ref name=":13" /><ref name=":16">{{Cite web |title=El recer celest a Romanyà |url=http://www.raco.cat/index.php/RevistaGirona/article/view/118586/151771 }}</ref>