Javier Marías


Javier Marías Franco was a Spanish author, translator, and columnist. Marías published fifteen novels, including A Heart So White '', Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me and the Your Face Tomorrow trilogy, widely regarded as his greatest achievement. In addition to his novels, he also published three collections of short stories and various essays. As one of Spain's most celebrated novelists, his books have been translated into forty-six languages and sold close to nine million copies internationally. He received several awards for his work, such as the Rómulo Gallegos Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, the International Nonino Prize, and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature.
Marías studied philosophy and literature at the Complutense University of Madrid before going on to teach at several universities, including his alma mater, universities in Oxford and Venice, and Wellesley College in Massachusetts. In 1997, he was awarded the title of King of the Kingdom of Redonda by its predecessor Jon Wynne-Tyson for his understanding of the kingdom and for mentioning the story of one of its previous kings, John Gawsworth, in his novel All Souls.

Life

Javier Marías Franco was born in Madrid on 20 September 1951. His father was the philosopher Julián Marías, who was briefly imprisoned and then banned from teaching for opposing Franco. His mother was the writer. Marías was the fourth of five sons. Two of his siblings were art historian and film critic and economist. He was the nephew and cousin of, respectively, filmmakers Jesús "Jess" Franco and Ricardo Franco. Marías spent parts of his childhood in the United States, where his father taught at various institutions, including Yale University and Wellesley College. His mother died when Javier was 26 years old. He was educated at the Colegio Estudio in Madrid. After having returned to Madrid, Marías studied philosophy and literary sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1968 to 1973. From the 1970s onwards, he was involved in translating English literary works into the Spanish language. His first literary employment consisted of translating Dracula scripts for his maternal uncle, Jesús Franco.

Writing

Marías began writing in earnest at an early age. "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga", one of the short stories in While the Women are Sleeping, was written when he was just 14. He ran away from home to write his first novel and went to live with his uncle in Paris. He began writing Los dominios del lobo, at the age of 17. It was about an American family and according to him, it was written in the morning hours. The novel is dedicated to the Spanish author Juan Benet, who managed to compel the publisher to print the book, and to Vicente Molina Foix, who provided him with the title. In later years he considered himself an "evening-time" writer. The novel Travesía del horizonte was an adventure story about an expedition to Antarctica.
His translations included work by Updike, Hardy, Conrad, Nabokov, Faulkner, James, Stevenson, and Browne. In 1979, he won the Spanish national award for translation for his version of Sterne's Tristram Shandy. Between 1983 and 1985, Marías lectured in Spanish literature and translation at the University of Oxford.
In 1986, Marías published El hombre sentimental, and in 1989 he published Todas las almas, which was set at Oxford University. The Spanish film director Gracia Querejeta released El Último viaje de Robert Rylands, adapted from Todas las almas, in 1996.
His 1992 novel Corazón tan blanco is centered on Juan, a translator for the United Nations, and its English version A Heart So White was translated by Margaret Jull Costa. It was received well by the literary critics and won the Spanish Critics Award. Marías and Costa were joint winners of the 1997 International Dublin Literary Award. In his 1994 novel, Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí, the protagonist is a ghostwriter.
The protagonists of the novels written since 1986 are all interpreters or translators of one kind or another, based on his own experience as a translator and teacher of translation at Oxford University. Of these protagonists, Marías wrote, "They are people who are renouncing their own voices."
In 2002 Marías published Tu rostro mañana 1. Fiebre y lanza, the first part of a trilogy which was his most ambitious literary project. The first volume is dominated by a translator, an elderly don based on an actual professor emeritus of Spanish studies at Oxford University, Sir Peter Russell. The second volume, Tu rostro mañana 2. Baile y sueño, was published in 2004. In 2007, Marías completed the final installment, Tu rostro mañana 3. Veneno y sombra y adiós. In 2009, the trilogy was published as one single volume.
It was followed by the novel Los enamoramientos in 2011, a story about a woman drawn into a murder mystery. The novel won the state-run National novel prize, but Marías rejected the award saying he did not want to be indebted to a government of any kind.
He also was a regular contributor to El País, whose editor-in-chief Pepa Bueno lamented his death and called it a sad day for Spanish literature. In 2005–2006, an English version of his column, "La Zona Fantasma", appeared in the monthly magazine ''The Believer.''

Redonda

After having been awarded the title, King of Redonda, he was also known as Xavier I. and, from 2000 onwards, Marías operated a small publishing house under the name of Reino de Redonda. Its first book of the publishing house was La mujer de Huguenin by the first King of Redondo and author M. P. Shiel. Marías's novel, Todas las almas, included a portrayal of the poet John Gawsworth, who was also the third King of Redonda. Although the fate of this monarchy after the death of Gawsworth is contested, the portrayal by Marías so affected the "reigning" king, Jon Wynne-Tyson, that he abdicated and left the throne to Marías in 1997. This course of events was chronicled in his "false novel," Negra espalda del tiempo. The book was inspired by the reception of Todas las almas by many people who, falsely according to Marías, believed they were the source of the characters in Todas las almas. After "taking the throne" of Redonda, Marías began a publishing imprint named Reino de Redonda.
Marías conferred many titles during his reign upon people he liked, including upon Pedro Almodóvar, António Lobo Antunes, John Ashbery, Pierre Bourdieu, William Boyd, Michel Braudeau, A. S. Byatt, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Pietro Citati, Francis Ford Coppola, Agustín Díaz Yanes, Roger Dobson, Frank Gehry, Francis Haskell, Eduardo Mendoza, Ian Michael, Orhan Pamuk, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Francisco Rico, Sir Peter Russell, Fernando Savater, W. G. Sebald, Jonathan Coe, Luis Antonio de Villena, and Juan Villoro.

Premio Reino de Redonda

Marías created a literary prize, the Premio Reino de Redonda to be judged by the dukes and duchesses. The jury was of extraordinary prominence, comprising the dukes mentioned below and other figures such as Francis Ford Coppola. In addition to prize money, the winners, listed below, received a duchy:

Death

Marías died of pneumonia caused by COVID-19 in Madrid on 11 September 2022, at the age of 70. The Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza remembered him as the best writer in Spain at the time of his death, and one who wrote female characters the best.

Awards and honours

Works

All English translations by Margaret Jull Costa unless otherwise indicated.

Novels

Los dominios del lobo Travesía del horizonte. Voyage Along the Horizon, translated by Kristina Cordero El monarca del tiempo El siglo El hombre sentimental. The Man of Feeling Todas las almas. All Souls

Novellas and short stories

Mientras ellas duermen. While the Women Are Sleeping Cuando fui mortal. When I Was Mortal Mala índole. Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico, translated by Esther Allen

Anthologies

Between Eternities & Other Writings. Later compiled in Spanish as ''Entre Eternidades. Y otros escritos''

Nonfiction

Vidas escritas. Written Lives. Multiple short literary biographies.
  • ''Venice, an interior''