Barcelona

A monumentally informed and irresistibly opinionated guide to the most un-Spanish city in Spain, from the bestselling author of The Fatal Shore.

In these pages, Robert Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona itself: proportion, humor, and seny—the Catalan word for triumphant common sense."Confirms . . . Mr. Hughes's authority as a first-rate chronicler and historian. The book is destined to become, like Forster's Alexandria and Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed, a classic." —The New York Times Book Review

"Authoritative, carefully researched, and full of insights into the city's great heritage . . . his judgments are full of tolerant and good-humored fascination. . . . There is no single volume in either Catalan or Spanish that approaches this book in scope or detail...a superb achievement and a great pleasure to read." —The Washington Post Book World

"Brilliant...an extraordinary book that combines history, criticism of the arts and architecture, and a profound sympathy for the moral essence of a people." —NewsdayRobert Hughes was born in Australia in 1938. In 1970 he moved to the United States to become chief art critic for Time, a position he held until 2001. His books include The Shock of the New, The Fatal Shore, Nothing if Not Critical, The Culture of Complaint, Barcelona, Goya, Things I Didn’t Know, and Rome. He is a New York Public Library Literary Lion, and was the recipient of a number of literary awards and prizes, including two Frank Jewett-Mather Awards. He is widely held as the most respected art critic of our time.