Memorable literary works, their origins and characters
The Snow Queen
Carmen Martín Gaite (1925-2000)
Spanish writer, born in Salamanca on December 8, 1925. She obtained a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Salamanca, where she met Ignacio Aldecoa and Agustín García Calvo. After she moved to Madrid in 1950, Ignacio Aldecoa introduced her to a circle of literary friends where she met Josefina Rodríguez, Alfonso Sastre, Juan Benet, Medardo Fraile, Jesús Fernández Santos and Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, whom she married in 1954. She wrote her first story, Un día de libertad (A Day of Freedom), in 1953, although she admits to writing since the age of 8.
In the story, young Leonardo Villalba has just been released from prison and is found confused and lost. As he attempts to impose order in his life, he keeps thinking back to a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen: The Snow Queen. "There was once a magic mirror wrought by the hands of demons..." One night, the mirror breaks and shatters into pieces so small they float in the air and spread throughout the world. One of the particles lodges in the eye of Kay, the main character in the book. Another finds its way into one of Leonardo's eyes. Events are unpredictable and often appear as twists of fate, as Leonardo is found by the Snow Queen and imprisoned in a castle of ice, sentenced to play for an eternity, just like Kay, the game of Cold Reason. The Snow Queen is a beautiful modern parable illustrating the power of memory.
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