Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
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Captain Alatriste, by Arturo Perez Reverte (1996)
The adventures of a dashing swordsman-for-hire in 17th-century Madrid; fans often follow Alatriste’s tracks through modern-day Madrid de los Austrias; made into a 2006 feature film.
The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Spanish Civil War, by Ernest Hemingway (1969)
Inspired by the author’s time as a correspondent in war-torn Madrid. The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) evokes the guerrilla warfare that took place in the mountains just outside of Madrid, while The Sun Also Rises (1926) finds the Lost Generation ending their Spanish odyssey in a pre-war Madrid of good times, fine eating, and heavy drinking.
La Colmena, by Camilo José Cela (1951)
Early novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author; evokes the harsh reality of post-war Madrid through the lives of more than 100 characters who pass through a neighborhood café; published in English as The Hive.
“Luces de Bohemia,” by Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1920)
Evocative play by one of Spain’s most influential dramatists; Bohemian Lights unfolds on the streets of a pre-Civil War Madrid rife with grotesque characters, social inequality, political unrest, and hypocrisy; available in English in Valle-Inclán Plays: One (1990).
