Catalina [Paperback]

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Lancer (1964)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000HXMAD0
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The religious establishment doesn't get it, September 22, 2002

By 

wzph (Los Angeles, California (roughly)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catalina: A Romance (Hardcover)

A solid comedy. A fun and insightful examination of Christianity.

"Nobody ever died of love," says Doña Beatriz, the prioress of the nunnery where the Virgin Mary appears to Catalina. While thinking she's only attempting to convince Catalina to give up her unquenchable thirst for her young lover, Diego, Beatriz actually reveals her own doubly hollow soul with this line. First, she herself did die of love. She died when the young priest Blasco did not leave his order to pursue the bashful looks she gave him every morning at mass when she was a girl. But more significantly, this woman who purports to be Christ's servant on earth fails to recognize that the very one she heralds as the savior of the world died of nothing if not of love (Maugham uses "of" here as Spanish speakers use "de." We might use "from" or "out of." This usage gives a bit of an exotic feel to the passage, while allowing the author to play with "of." "As a result of" and "out of" are both valid ways to interpret it, making the line rather nuanced.). She replaced amorous love with the love of her savior, but somewhere in the midst of 16th-century Spain she lost even that.

The novel is largely about gaining fresh perspectives on life and redemption. Blasco finds a new perspective about his Greek friend Demetrios. Beatriz foils her own attempt to bring Catalina into the convent by realizing that salvation is knowable outside her nunnery's walls. Most notably, however, Catalina finds a fresh perspective every time she goes on stage-the words she speaks might be the same from performance to performance, but the audience is always different, creating a new performance every time.

From the Christian perspective, very little of what Maugham writes in this novel is controversial. For instance, everybody agrees that burning infidels at the stake is not what Christ had in mind for his Church. Yet Maugham first goes about creating a world (the Inquisition) in which there is order, in which the reader can find a place for herself (whether that of insider or outsider). Then once the world is established, it is chinked piecemeal until the absurdity of it all is plain.

An especially nice touch is the introduction at the end of the novel of an unnamed character who is very clearly Don Quixote. Maugham uses Quixote as a parallel to the Church. While insane in his demeanor and behavior, Quixote does deal with significant issues like love and virtue. Maugham writes that people around Quixote are amazed that someone who acts so oddly is able to eloquently discuss such meaningful things.

The Church is in the same position as Quixote, according to Maugham. On the one hand, the Church has done some dubious, even horribly sinful things. Yet, there is still truth to be had by her people. The Inquisition doesn't negate the redemption Christ offers. Killing dissidents is the wrong way to go about portraying love, but humankind's (and the Church's) need for redemption is precisely the point.

Overall, the novel is definitely worth a read. I have a few criticisms, but my main one is Maugham's sloppy use of pronouns. "He" is too often left vague. While that can enhance certain passages, it is regularly unnecessary and often distressing. But find a copy and read it for yourself.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heavenly !!!, February 6, 2001

By 

Patrick Woosley (San Antonio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Catalina: A Romance (W. Somerset Maugham Works) (Hardcover)

I read this book about 25 years ago and at the time thought it was the best book I'd ever read. I lent it to someone who I'll refer to only as "Moca" in a momentary lapse of reason, and have course never seen it again. I really want to find and read another copy. It's an enchanting story of a divinely blessed young woman who, apparently, has been chosen by God to fulfill a life to the fullest that serves `Him" best. All this is set to the backdrop of the fervent exploits of the Spanish Inquisition.

Despite overwhelming pressure from the devout and self-righteous who claim to know what's best for her, she follows her own path and does indeed live to fulfill her divinely endowed potential. Religious hypocrisy is exposed for what it is in this intricately subtle and heart warming story of one girl's triumphs in the face of seemingly daunting dogmatic forces arraigned against her. "Catalina, I love you! I want you in my life again, please come back to me."

Believe me ... She's and absolute Treasure!

4.0 out of 5 stars Maugham's Satire of Religious Absolutism Retains Respect For Spanish Culture, September 19, 2011

By 

R. J. Marsella (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catalina (Complete and Unabridged) (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this late novel by Somerset Maugham to be a very entertaining portrayal of 15th century Spain. At the height of the inquisition a young girl has a vision that transforms her life and the life of many others. Maugham explores how in an age of compulsory belief there remain those who manipulate circumstances for worldly ends. His characterizations of the inhabitants of this small Spanish city include three brothers whose lives converge around the young girl's experience after a long separation. One is a the Bishop of Segovia, one a respected soldier and the 3rd a simple baker. Other characters include a manipulative prioress in charge of the local convent, a tailor and a drunken playwright.
The first half of the novel is less fanciful then the later chapters as other reviewers have pointed out but I didn't find the theatrical ending a detraction from the overall effect of this book. Admittedly this is not Maugham's masterwork but he was a remarkable writer and in his hands this small Spanish city and the lives of the inhabitants comes to life.