SOURCE: "The Hungry Present," in Times Literary Supplement, August 7, 1953, p. 505.

In the following review, the critic asserts, "As a social document [The Hive is exceptional."]

It is some indication of the remarkable quality of this novel [The Hive] by the most eminent young writer of General Franco's Spain that the most eminent refugee writer from the same Spain should have written 5,000 words introducing it to the British public: and it is some indication of the gulf which yawns between contemporary Madrid and contemporary London that every sentence of Señor Barea's introduction is needed to make this vivid, brutal and almost despairing work of art intelligible to a British reader.

Camilo José Cela fought for General Franco and holds a government position, which has made it possible for him to write this book apparently with impunity. His earlier novel, La familia de Pascual Duarte, even achieved publication in...