The Spanish author Camilo José Cela y Trulock (born 1916) was a prose stylist of extraordinary ability. He is generally considered the major Spanish literary figure of the post-Civil War generation.

Camilo José Cela was born in Iria Flavia, Galicia, where his father's ancestors--some renowned, some of peasant stock--had lived for generations. His mother was of English ancestry. When he was 9, his family moved to Madrid, where Cela later attended a number of secondary schools run by religious orders, finally graduating with an undistinguished record. At the University of Madrid he studied, in turn, medicine, liberal arts, and law but abandoned all three fields without earning a degree.

In 1942 Cela's short novel The Family of Pascual Duarte exploded upon the literary scene in Spain. After the upheaval of the Civil War the Spanish novel had almost ceased to exist. Baroja, Azorin, and Pérez de Ayala...