100 Greguerías ilustradas (100 Illustrated Greguerias)

Ramón Gómez de la Serna
Illustrations by César Fernández Arias
Selection: Herrín Hidalgo
Commentary by Juan Manuel Bonet

ISBN: 978-84-930221-4-3
Books for Children Collection, number 5 / Spanish edition / 1st edition, 1st reprint: May 2007 / 18,5 x 23 cm / 112 pages / 100 bicoloured illustrations + portraits of the authors / hardcover with dust jacket / printed at Brizzolis, Madrid, Spain

The greguería is a minor literary genre invented by Ramón Gómez de la Serna: a cocktail of humor and metaphors. For some, they are poetry; for children, they are jokes. There are lots of greguerías and some books about them, but few illustrators, unlike César Fernández Arias, have had the spirit of Ramón guiding their hand.

Of the many definitions of greguerías Ramón came up with, this is the one that has enjoyed the greatest fortune: humour + metaphor = greguería. But greguerías are also “something like a prepared olive to which the stone is removed and replaced with an anchovy”.

Ramón Gómez de la Serna wrote over 10,000 of them during his lifetime. Despite the quantity, they are not easily found: “One never knows what could be a greguería, how many are still possible, where the good ones are. To create a greguería, one must milk ones hairs one by one”.

Like Ramón, his brother in art César Fernández Arias has placed his regal Caesar’s head in a blender, hair and all, to distill these greguerising illustrations that greguerise the brilliant greguerías even more.

VAT included

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