The Hive by Camilo José Cela

First published:La colmena, 1951 (English translation, 1953)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: December, 1943

Locale: Madrid

Principal characters

• Martín Marco, a down-and-out writer
• Filo, Martín’s kindhearted sister
• Roberto González, Filo’s accountant husband
• Doña Rosa, a stern café owner

The Story:

One cold December afternoon in 1943, four years after the end of the Spanish Civil War, the waiter in Doña Rosa’s café, La Delicia, throws out a pale, feeble, poorly dressed man who is unable to pay his tab. The waiter disobeys Doña Rosa’s orders, however, to beat the man as a lesson for his impudence. The wretch is Martín Marco, a freelance writer down on his luck. After having offered to leave a book in payment, Martín continues on his customary nightly wandering though Madrid. Everyday existence is hardscrabble and bleak for the people of Spain ever since the Fascist dictator, Generalísimo Francisco Franco, assumed power after a bloody three-year conflict that ravaged the country and left its citizenry deeply divided. Stopping before a show window of toilet fittings, Martín reflects on the gross class disparities of his day. He idealistically ponders the unlikely possibility of a socialist utopia. Tired, cold, and hungry, and with his brain in turmoil, Martín purchases a few chestnuts with his remaining pocket money. He proceeds to the apartment of his poor but sympathetic sister, Filo. Since her husband, Roberto González, has yet to arrive, Martín is sure to be able to eat at least one fried egg that she will lovingly prepare for him. The two discuss Martín’s good fortune in arriving while González is still at work, for the brothers-in-law have long disliked each other. Hurrying out to avoid encountering the man he always refers to as “that beast,” Martín meets his friend Paco, and they exchange reading material.

Later that night, Martín bumps into an old acquaintance, La Uruguaya, a prostitute in the company of a free-spending client. He accepts their invitation to have a drink reluctantly, for he finds the woman vaguely repugnant. Subsequently, he continues on his way through Madrid. Passing through one of the city’s red-light districts, Martín meets police patrolling the area. He appears disoriented when they demand that he produce his papers. Fearful without exactly knowing why, Martín, now rambling and barely coherent, identifies himself as a sometime author of newspaper articles; the authorities are satisfied. He ends up spending the night in a brothel run by Doña Jesusa, a friend of his deceased mother. He spends the night with the prostitute Purita, who kindly offers to buy him breakfast the following morning.

The next afternoon, Martín, broke as usual, encounters another friend, Ventura Aguado, from whom he sheepishly borrows money so that he can treat Ventura to a coffee. Leaving the café, Martín meets a former schoolmate and girlfriend, who is, like him, a Republican sympathizer. Nati Robles once thought that the study of politics and the philosophy of law would be all she needed to be happy. Martín notes how much better dressed Nati appears than she was as a university suffragist. He somewhat nervously accepts her invitation to a drink. In a serendipitous gesture, Nati presents Martín with fifty pesetas so that he can treat her as well as buy her a gift. On his way to a secondhand bookshop where he intends to purchase a print for Nati, Martín stops for a drink at Doña Rosa’s café, from which he was unceremoniously removed the previous day. There, Martín pays his outstanding debt and tips the waiter generously before commenting insultingly on the poor quality of the establishment. When he finally reaches the shop, he is chagrined to discover that his only remaining twenty-five pesetas fell out of his pocket when he used the café’s lavatory.

A few days later, Martín borrows a black tie from Pablo Alonso, a friend who was good-heartedly providing him with free lodging. Martín then sets off to visit his mother’s grave, again making little sense and muttering vague pronouncements about the means of production and distribution. An unspecified something that appears in that day’s newspaper—either an article Martín wrote or a belated denunciation of his political sympathies—frightens his friends, and they organize an all-out search for Martín before the authorities should find him. While they discuss plans for hiding the unbalanced Martín or packing him off to Barcelona long enough for the affair to blow over, Martín remains oblivious to his troubles. Trying to save the very same newspaper that threatens to be his undoing, he vows to read the want ads and find himself a respectable job working for the government or in a bank.

Bibliography

Charlebois, Lucile C. Understanding Camilo José Cela. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. A thorough if difficult study of Cela’s progressively complex novels. Each chapter focuses on one of the novels, beginning with The Family of Pascual Duarte through La cruz de San Andres. Includes chronology and select bibliography.

Foster, David W. Forms of the Novel in the Work of Camilo José Cela. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1967. Contains a helpful chapter analyzing the unique “slice of life” structure and imbricated patterning of The Hive in contrast to the widely varying compositional designs of the rest of the author’s novels.

Henn, David. C. J. Cela: “La Colmena.” London: Grant & Cutler, 1974. The most comprehensive study of Cela’s novel. Provides a concise biographical sketch of the author and a useful historical backdrop to the action of the work. Includes extended sections on theme, style, and structure, as well as a detailed chapter on the symbolic importance of the figure of Martín Marco.

Ilie, Paul. Literature and Inner Exile: Authoritarian Spain, 1939-1975. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980. Considers a definition of inner exile as the deep-seated alienation from the dominant values of a society in which one is constrained to remain a participating member. Though not a study of Cela or his works, this in-depth critical analysis of the sociopolitical consequences of Francisco Franco’s unforgiving rule captures the estrangement of protagonists such as Martín Marco.

McPheeters, D. W. Camilo José Cela. New York: Twayne, 1969. An excellent starting place for any investigation into Cela’s life and work. The author’s literary output is considered within the historical and aesthetic context of his day. The chapter dedicated to The Hive provides a good introduction to the novel.

Peréz, Janet. Camilo José Cela Revisited: The Later Novels. New York: Twayne, 2000. Peréz updates and expands McPheeters’s overview. Analyzes Cela’s novels and provides biographical material, an index, and an annotated bibliography for further study.

Roy, Joaquîn, ed. Camilo José Cela: Homage to a Nobel Prize. Coral Gables, Fla.: University of Miami Press, 1991. Specialized essays commemorating Cela’s 1989 Nobel Prize in Literature. Contains three pieces on The Hive: “Cela on Screen: La colmena” by Thomas Deveny, “Reading La colmena Through the Lens: From Mario Camus to Camilo José Cela” by Bernardo Antonio González, and “The Role of Urban Icons in Cela’s La colmena” by William M. Sherzer. Also includes essays on two other influential Cela works: The Family of Pascual Duarte and San Camilo, 1936.

Turner, Harriet, and Adelaida López de Martínez, eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel: From 1600 to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Cela’s work is discussed in several places, particularly in chapter 11, “The Testimonial Novel and the Novel of Memory.” Places Cela’s work within the broader context of the Spanish novel.