Essentially, this book is a revised and much enlarged version of a small volume on Catalan literature which I published in 1972 and which has long been out of print. Strictly speaking, it is neither a conventional history of literature nor exactly a work of literary criticism, though it has aspects of both. A ‘Companion’, as I understand it, should be a supplement to the texts themselves, and in no way a substitute. Above all, it should direct the reader to the most important works, placing them in their historical and social context, commenting on their most distinctive features and, where necessary, referring to the biography of their authors. In all this, I have tried to be as objective as I can; nevertheless, there is also a personal element involved, since I have not attempted to hide my own preferences, even when these run counter to received opinion.

In writing this book, I have tried to bear in mind the needs of the non-specialist reader (preferably with some knowledge of Spanish) who wishes to know more about an important but, on the whole, neglected, area of Peninsular culture. Where English readers are concerned, the task, unfortunately, is long overdue: in the Penguin Companion to European Literature(1969), the whole of Catalan literature is given the same space as Jean-Paul Sartre, and in John Sturrock's otherwise excellent Oxford Guide to Contemporary World Literature(1996) it is omitted altogether. This seems characteristic of a situation which few specialists have as yet tried to alter. The chief barrier, of course, is linguistic: yet, especially if one knows another Romance language, it is not difficult to acquire at least a reading knowledge of Catalan, and for reasons which are given in Chapter I, the older literature is relatively accessible to a modern reader compared, say, with that of France or Spain.

This accessibility gives an impression of coherence to the entire range of Catalan literature which is reinforced to a great extent by social and historical tendencies. Roughly speaking, this literature follows a recognizable European pattern, with one notable exception: the fact that its course is interrupted for something like three centuries by what is usually known as the period of ‘Decadence’ (see Chapter 2).