Novena for the Dead

By Narcís Oller

"I found myself in the grips of an obsession: death, death, death. All of the dead in my family were turning up in my thoughts. My good grandfather, my little brother, an old maid whose body I had seen lain out—they reappeared before my eyes, lying on black biers, as pale as wax, with sunken eyes, turned to stone in the impressive state of eternal slumber."

Translated from Catalan by G. López de Górgolas
Genre: short story
Length: 2,200 words

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fario
• Release date: Oct 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301683901

Narcís Oller

Catalan writer and lawyer. Born in Valls in 1846 and died in Barcelona in 1930.

Book preview

Novena for the Dead

Narcís Oller

Translated by Gregory López de Górgolas

First published as El novenari d’ànimes

English translation copyright 2013 Fario and Gregory López de Górgolas

Published at Smashwords by Fario and Gregory López de Górgolas

Contents

Novena for the Dead

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Novena for the Dead

The biggest church in my town (the parròquia, they call it) is Gothic, in the style of Santa Maria del Pi. The architecture of our church, which is taller and longer, is perhaps less pure than that of that church, may have less wealth of detail, and it also has, like Santa Maria del Pi, a single nave—a nave that, with its slender and well-built ribbing, and with the graceful vaulting of its apse,