The Shadow of the Wind

These chapters recount Daniel’s life from age 10 to 14 and his development from a child introduced to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books into a young man willing to betray a solemn promise in the hopes of gaining a woman’s affection.

The next morning, Daniel begins asking questions about Julián Carax because he wants to read all of Carax’s books. Daniel and his father seek out Don Gustavo Barceló, a wealthy and knowledgeable book collector. He offers to buy Daniel’s book, but Daniel refuses. Barceló agrees to tell Julián and his father everything he knows about Julián Carax at a meeting the next day.

Don Gustavo has brought his niece, Clara Barceló, to meet with Julián because she is an expert in Julián Carax’s work. Intrigued and entranced by Clara’s beauty, sadness, and intelligence, Daniel is drawn to her. She is also blind, and she reads his face using her delicate hands and fingers.

During the course of their first meeting, Daniel falls completely in love with Clara Barceló. She tells him about her life: her father, a prominent lawyer, was arrested and killed during the Spanish Civil War, but he had sent his wife and Clara away to Provence, France, where they lived in safety. She discovered Julián Carax’s books there, through her tutor who purchased a Carax novel called The Red House on one of his trips to Paris.

The novel comprises a dark, gothic atmosphere, with plenty of drama, intrigue, and a doomed love story. From the book’s biographical blurb on the author, Clara learned that Julián Carax earned his living playing the piano in a bordello during the evening. The tutor never gave up on looking for Carax novels even though he never found another one. He discovered from the second-hand bookseller in Paris that Carax had published a novel called The Shadow of the Wind in 1935. This book received good reviews, and Julián’s fortunes seemed to be improving. He was engaged to a wealthy woman, but at dawn on his wedding day, Julián fought in a duel and never made it to his wedding. Many rumors circulated through Paris about Julián Carax’s fate: the final rumor being that he died, penniless and alone, after returning to Barcelona, where he was buried in a pauper’s mass grave.

Clara explains her captivation in reading The Red House: she learned that she could “live more intensely” in the “world of shadows” within a book, such as those written by Julián Carax (27).

She tells Daniel that an assassin for hire by the anarchists—Javier Fumero—murdered her father in the moat of the Montejuïc Castle in Barcelona. Later Fumero changed to the winning side and joined the police force. Now an Inspector, Fumero successfully played all sides against each other to ensure his own survival;.

Daniel offers to come over the next day and begin reading The Shadow of the Wind aloud to Clara.

Daniel harbors dreams of becoming an author himself. Fascinated by a gorgeous fountain pen, said to have been once owned by Victor Hugo sitting in a second-hand shop, Daniel determines that with such a pen he could write masterpieces. The cost of this pen is astronomical. His father promises that when Daniel is old enough to start writing, he will find a way to buy the pen or have the local watchmaker, Don Frederico, craft a similar pen. Don Frederico, respected by all for his craftmaking skills, also enjoys dressing in women’s clothing and occasionally sleeping with muscular young men.

Daniel tries, unsuccessfully, to write a story without the magical pen. He gives up his authorial ambitions but retains his philosophical bent as he ponders Clara’s and his own losses of parents. That night, after reading to Clara and eating dinner with his father, Daniel glimpses a dark figure watching him stand on the balcony as the mysterious figure smokes a cigarette: this figure mirrors the devil in The Shadow of the Wind.

Daniel arrives at the Barceló’s apartment and is overwhelmed by its grandeur. He begins reading The Shadow of the Wind to Clara, and he reports that this first meeting resulted in nearly daily visits to the Barceló’s over the summer and during the following years. Daniel does not see Clara on the days she receives her music lessons from Adrián Neri—a well-connected, supposedly brilliant composer.

Clara tortures Daniel with her stories about a stranger who accosts her on the street, asking questions about her uncle, Don Gustavo, and Daniel. The Barceló’s maid, Bernarda, imposes herself as mother-figure in Daniel’s life. She repeatedly warns Daniel not to let himself become “‘obsessed’ ” with Clara (45). Daniel ignores her warnings and disregards his father’s advice to keep up his friendship with his childhood best friend, Tomás Aguilar. Finally, his father tells Daniel that Clara is simply using him for her own amusement. Soon enough, as Daniel reaches fourteen, his time with Clara brings him significant pain, because she clearly does not reciprocate his feelings. However, Daniel persists in living in a fantasy world where Clara is concerned.