THE MAN OF FEELING, or, EL HOMBRE SENTIMENTAL by JAVIER MARÍAS
SUMMARY
The unnamed narrator grew up in an oppressive household. As a child, he moved to Madrid to live with his grandfather, Seńor Casaldáliga, who was very strict. The narrator was not allowed to leave the bedroom while Casaldáliga was away, and Casaldáliga was not financially supportive of the narrator, although Casaldáliga was financially successful. The narrator develops a talent for opera singing whilst living with Casaldáliga. Later on, the narrator falls in love with a woman named Berta. The narrator marries Berta and Berta and the narrator move into a home together.
After some time, the romance in Berta and the narrator's relationship fades. The narrator visits prostitutes while on tour with the opera, and when the narrator returns home, the narrator is more concerned with attempting to fall back into a routine of home comfort than with connecting to Berta, emotionally or physically. Berta and the narrator divorce, and the narrator leaves some books at their formerly shared home during the narrator's departure. Berta remarries to a man whose name is either Noriega, Noguer, or Navarro, and the narrator cannot remember the exact name of Berta's second husband.
Just as the narrator is inwardly lamenting at the loneliness opera singers feel in each new city visited on tour by opera singers, the narrator meets a man named Dato and a woman named Natalia Manur in Madrid. Dato complains to the narrator that Dato feels as though Dato's marriage has become dispassionately ritualistic. At this juncture, the narrator professes to stop thinking about the narrator. Natalia is the wife of the director of the opera. During one rehearsal, the director of the opera, known simply as Manur, flies into a rage at the entire cast of the opera and then becomes enraged at the venue's staff. That night, Natalia Manur comes home from a late night with Dato and the narrator and Manur expresses his jealousy. Natalia ignores her husband and rolls away from her husband's grasp in bed.
The narrator realizes his sexual attraction for Natalia Manur and decides to ease his tension by hiring a prostitute on the first night after the opera opening, which is atypical for the narrator to do on opening night of the opera. The narrator goes to the front desk and arranges for a prostitute to be sent to the narrator's room by the hotel's concierge. When the prostitute, who is named Claudina and claims to be Argentinian while speaking in a Spanish accent, arrives, the narrator decides to sit and chat with the prostitute rather than have sex with the prostitute. During the narrator's interaction with Claudina, the narrator tells Claudina that his name is Emilio, but thinks that this is a lie.
The next morning, Manur comes to the narrator's hotel room, and Manur asks the narrator for a private dialogue over breakfast in the narrator's room. During the dialogue between the narrator and Manur, Manur accuses the narrator of calling Manur's house with the intent of speaking to Natalia Manur after midnight. Manur suspects that the narrator is having an affair with Natalia Manur, and forbids Natalia Manur from speaking to the narrator. Manur reveals that Manur is blackmailing Natalia Manur into the Manur's marriage because Manur is financially supporting Natalia Manur's brother, Roberto, who is a fugitive.
Manur informs Dato of Manur's suspicions regarding the narrator's intentions. After the narrator becomes intoxicated and vomits on a fellow opera singer who the narrator feels uneasy in the company of, Dato summons the narrator to Dato's room. Dato tells the narrator that Natalia Manur is waiting to speak with the narrator. The narrator goes to meet Natalia Manur and Natalia Manur and the narrator begin dating. Natalia Manur divorces her husband Manur.
After four days, Manur shoots himself. Natalia Manur insists on keeping Manur company during Manur's final days, and, after Manur is deceased, Natalia Manur returns to the narrator. Rather than stay at home while the narrator is touring with the opera as Berta did, Natalia Manur accompanies the narrator while the narrator is touring with the opera.
After some time, the narrator and Natalia Manur have grown apart. Natalia Manur does not speak to the narrator when Natalia Manur is in the narrator's hotel room, and Natalia Manur does not tour the city and is lonely in each town she visits, just as opera singers are lonely in each touring stop. Natalia Manur demands that only Spanish be spoken during the trips. Four years after the narrator first met Natalia Manur, Natalia Manur ends her romantic relationship with the narrator by leaving the narrator during an opera tour, despite the narrator's desperate plea to Natalia Manur to keep the relationship together.
The narrator receives a letter from Berta's second husband, but doesn't learn the husband's name from the letter. Berta's second husband informs the narrator that Berta has died and that Berta's second husband is willing to send the narrator the narrator's old books, if the narrator desires to reclaim the old books. The narrator takes the fact that Berta kept the narrator's books as a sign that Berta cared for the narrator more than the narrator originally thought. The narrator does not want the old books and has a flashback spanning the past four years and his relationship with Natalia Manur.
ANALYSIS
Because the narrator receives news about his first wife at the same time as a long term relationship has ended, the two relationships are juxtaposed naturally as the narrator is forced to think about the relationships during the same time interval. While Berta did not accompany the narrator on opera trips, Natalia Manur did. The narrator knew Berta when he was young and innocent and vying to escape from his oppressive grandfather's home. The narrator knew Natlia Manur when he felt sickened by the egotism and dishonesty the narrator felt was rampant in the opera industry, culminating in the narrator's vomiting on an opera singer who reflected the negative traits of the opera industry.
The narrator began to grow apart from Berta when the narrator used prostitutes, and toured incessantly. However, when the narrator dated a woman who was involved in the same industry, he still grew apart from his partner. When the narrator expresses happiness that Berta kept the narrator's books and therefore must have cared more than he thought about him, the narrator realizes that the opera singing industry has corrupted him and he should not have allowed the profession to drag him away from a woman whom he says made every effort to be a good partner.
When the narrator met people, including Natalia Manur, in a strange city, he said he stopped thinking about himself. After Natalia Manur left, the narrator began thinking about himself again. The narrator complains that during long road trips, he was given too much time to think about himself in the hotel rooms of strange cities, surrounded by strangers. The narrator was too busy thinking about himself because he traveled alone to appreciate his first wife, Berta.
It is not the opera itself that is blamed for the narrator's corruption, but the personality traits acquired by the narrator in the process of traveling from city to city in solitude and developing an ego around a crew of similarly affected, conniving performers. Rather than try to make his life fit the opera singer's lifestyle by dating a woman in the same industry, the narrator discovers that he needs to make his profession fit his life, and not become corrupted by his work.
SOURCE
Marías, Javier. The Man of Feeling. Trans. Margaret Jull. Costa. New York: New Directions Pub., 2003. Print. Book about an egotistical man who loves and loses two women during his opera singing career.
SUMMARY
The unnamed narrator grew up in an oppressive household. As a child, he moved to Madrid to live with his grandfather, Seńor Casaldáliga, who was very strict. The narrator was not allowed to leave the bedroom while Casaldáliga was away, and Casaldáliga was not financially supportive of the narrator, although Casaldáliga was financially successful. The narrator develops a talent for opera singing whilst living with Casaldáliga. Later on, the narrator falls in love with a woman named Berta. The narrator marries Berta and Berta and the narrator move into a home together.
After some time, the romance in Berta and the narrator's relationship fades. The narrator visits prostitutes while on tour with the opera, and when the narrator returns home, the narrator is more concerned with attempting to fall back into a routine of home comfort than with connecting to Berta, emotionally or physically. Berta and the narrator divorce, and the narrator leaves some books at their formerly shared home during the narrator's departure. Berta remarries to a man whose name is either Noriega, Noguer, or Navarro, and the narrator cannot remember the exact name of Berta's second husband.
Just as the narrator is inwardly lamenting at the loneliness opera singers feel in each new city visited on tour by opera singers, the narrator meets a man named Dato and a woman named Natalia Manur in Madrid. Dato complains to the narrator that Dato feels as though Dato's marriage has become dispassionately ritualistic. At this juncture, the narrator professes to stop thinking about the narrator. Natalia is the wife of the director of the opera. During one rehearsal, the director of the opera, known simply as Manur, flies into a rage at the entire cast of the opera and then becomes enraged at the venue's staff. That night, Natalia Manur comes home from a late night with Dato and the narrator and Manur expresses his jealousy. Natalia ignores her husband and rolls away from her husband's grasp in bed.
The narrator realizes his sexual attraction for Natalia Manur and decides to ease his tension by hiring a prostitute on the first night after the opera opening, which is atypical for the narrator to do on opening night of the opera. The narrator goes to the front desk and arranges for a prostitute to be sent to the narrator's room by the hotel's concierge. When the prostitute, who is named Claudina and claims to be Argentinian while speaking in a Spanish accent, arrives, the narrator decides to sit and chat with the prostitute rather than have sex with the prostitute. During the narrator's interaction with Claudina, the narrator tells Claudina that his name is Emilio, but thinks that this is a lie.
The next morning, Manur comes to the narrator's hotel room, and Manur asks the narrator for a private dialogue over breakfast in the narrator's room. During the dialogue between the narrator and Manur, Manur accuses the narrator of calling Manur's house with the intent of speaking to Natalia Manur after midnight. Manur suspects that the narrator is having an affair with Natalia Manur, and forbids Natalia Manur from speaking to the narrator. Manur reveals that Manur is blackmailing Natalia Manur into the Manur's marriage because Manur is financially supporting Natalia Manur's brother, Roberto, who is a fugitive.
Manur informs Dato of Manur's suspicions regarding the narrator's intentions. After the narrator becomes intoxicated and vomits on a fellow opera singer who the narrator feels uneasy in the company of, Dato summons the narrator to Dato's room. Dato tells the narrator that Natalia Manur is waiting to speak with the narrator. The narrator goes to meet Natalia Manur and Natalia Manur and the narrator begin dating. Natalia Manur divorces her husband Manur.
After four days, Manur shoots himself. Natalia Manur insists on keeping Manur company during Manur's final days, and, after Manur is deceased, Natalia Manur returns to the narrator. Rather than stay at home while the narrator is touring with the opera as Berta did, Natalia Manur accompanies the narrator while the narrator is touring with the opera.
After some time, the narrator and Natalia Manur have grown apart. Natalia Manur does not speak to the narrator when Natalia Manur is in the narrator's hotel room, and Natalia Manur does not tour the city and is lonely in each town she visits, just as opera singers are lonely in each touring stop. Natalia Manur demands that only Spanish be spoken during the trips. Four years after the narrator first met Natalia Manur, Natalia Manur ends her romantic relationship with the narrator by leaving the narrator during an opera tour, despite the narrator's desperate plea to Natalia Manur to keep the relationship together.
The narrator receives a letter from Berta's second husband, but doesn't learn the husband's name from the letter. Berta's second husband informs the narrator that Berta has died and that Berta's second husband is willing to send the narrator the narrator's old books, if the narrator desires to reclaim the old books. The narrator takes the fact that Berta kept the narrator's books as a sign that Berta cared for the narrator more than the narrator originally thought. The narrator does not want the old books and has a flashback spanning the past four years and his relationship with Natalia Manur.
ANALYSIS
Because the narrator receives news about his first wife at the same time as a long term relationship has ended, the two relationships are juxtaposed naturally as the narrator is forced to think about the relationships during the same time interval. While Berta did not accompany the narrator on opera trips, Natalia Manur did. The narrator knew Berta when he was young and innocent and vying to escape from his oppressive grandfather's home. The narrator knew Natlia Manur when he felt sickened by the egotism and dishonesty the narrator felt was rampant in the opera industry, culminating in the narrator's vomiting on an opera singer who reflected the negative traits of the opera industry.
The narrator began to grow apart from Berta when the narrator used prostitutes, and toured incessantly. However, when the narrator dated a woman who was involved in the same industry, he still grew apart from his partner. When the narrator expresses happiness that Berta kept the narrator's books and therefore must have cared more than he thought about him, the narrator realizes that the opera singing industry has corrupted him and he should not have allowed the profession to drag him away from a woman whom he says made every effort to be a good partner.
When the narrator met people, including Natalia Manur, in a strange city, he said he stopped thinking about himself. After Natalia Manur left, the narrator began thinking about himself again. The narrator complains that during long road trips, he was given too much time to think about himself in the hotel rooms of strange cities, surrounded by strangers. The narrator was too busy thinking about himself because he traveled alone to appreciate his first wife, Berta.
It is not the opera itself that is blamed for the narrator's corruption, but the personality traits acquired by the narrator in the process of traveling from city to city in solitude and developing an ego around a crew of similarly affected, conniving performers. Rather than try to make his life fit the opera singer's lifestyle by dating a woman in the same industry, the narrator discovers that he needs to make his profession fit his life, and not become corrupted by his work.
- oppressed child becomes an opera singer
- opera singer marries a woman whom he later divorces
- opera singer falls in love with the wife of the director of an opera he is starring in and dates the director's wife
- the opera director commits suicide
- opera singer's second long-term partner leaves him
- opera singer receives a letter informing him that his first wife is dead
SOURCE
Marías, Javier. The Man of Feeling. Trans. Margaret Jull. Costa. New York: New Directions Pub., 2003. Print. Book about an egotistical man who loves and loses two women during his opera singing career.
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