Description

---

An accessible account of the contradictory life and work of the modernist Catalan architect.
 
The celebrated art nouveau architect Antoni Gaudí was a contradictory figure: a deeply religious, politically right-wing man who nevertheless built revolutionary buildings. This book explores Gaudí’s life, work, and influences from Catalan nationalism to the industrial revolution. Michael Eaude expertly guides readers through Gaudí’s dozen great works, including the Sagrada Família that attracts millions of tourists each year. Gaudí’s life is also chronicled from his provincial upbringing in Reus to his time in Barcelona. He later suffered a nervous breakdown, became obsessively religious, and fused Gothic, Baroque, and Orientalist architecture into his unique style. This brief biography offers an accessible introduction to this perplexing and fascinating life.

About the Author

---

Michael Eaude is the author of several books on Spanish and Catalan culture, including A People’s History of Catalonia.

Praise For…

---

"Journalist Eaude delivers an energetic survey of the life and work of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí . . . a worthy tribute to one of history’s great iconoclasts."
— Publishers Weekly

"Eaude’s ‘Ode’ to Gaudí is a wonderful introduction to the architect as genius and Catalan myth, while also celebrating Gaudí's extraordinary capacity to blend a medieval mindset with his position at the cutting edge of the avant-garde."
— Gijs van Hensbergen, author of 'Gaudí and Guernica'

"This new intellectual biography explains the complex synergy between the life and work of Gaudí at a crossroads of history: from the awakening of the Catalan bourgeoisie to the shipwreck of his legacy in Barcelona today."
— Carolina García-Estévez, Polytechnic University of Catalonia