Nueva edicion conmemorativa de la Real Academia Espanola y la Asociacion de Academias de la Lengua Espanola para celebrar el centenario de Camilo Jose Cela, uno de los escritores espanoles mas importantes del siglo XX.

Considerada una de las mejores novelas espanolas del siglo XX, La colmena es una obra coral ambientada en el Madrid de posguerra, durante unos pocos dias de 1943. Con ella el autor quiso mostrar la realidad social de esos dificiles anos de la historia de Espana. Los protagonistas pertenecen a la clase media y llevan una vida que parece estar paralizada, sin un futuro real y esperanzador, por la situacion del pais. Las pequenas escenas que se narran en esta obra ocurren simultaneamente. Las vidas de los personajes se entrecruzan formando un mosaico como las celdas de una colmena. Para sortear la censura, Camilo Jose Cela se vio obligado a eliminar algunas escenas en las que se trataban temas de contenido sexual. Una vez acabado el franquismo, estas escenas nunca fueron restituidas en ninguna de las numerosas ediciones que se llevaron a cabo. Esta edicion incluye esas escenas: con ellas, La colmena se presenta ante el lector, por primera vez, de manera integra, tal y como el autor la concibio. Esta edicion presenta estudios complementarios escritos por algunos de los principales criticos, escritores y academicos espanoles, ademas de un glosario, un indice de nombres propios y una bibliografia selecta sobre la obra de Cela. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION This new commemorative edition by the Real Academia Espanola and the Asociacion de Academias de la Lengua espanola celebrates the 100 years since the birth of one of the most important Spanish authors of the 20th Century: the Nobel Prize winner, Camilo Jose Cela. Considered one of the best Spanish novels of the 20th Century, La colmena was originally published in Argentina due to the Franco censorships in Spain. The story line is set in a postwar Madrid during a few days in 1943. It is a work in which the author wanted to depict the social reality of those difficult years in Spain's history. The middle class protagonists lead a stale life, without any hope for a real future due to the country's political situation. The lives of these characters are intertwined forming a mosaic, a sort of web that looks like a hive. In order to get around the censorship of those times, Camilo Jose Cela had to take out some parts of the book that were deemed too sexual. After Franco left power Cela never felt the need to insert those deleted scenes back into any newly published editions. Now, for the first time, this new commemorative edition includes those never before read scenes, and just like that, the novel is now published as it was originally written. This new edition includes complementary studies and essays written by the most notable critics, writers, and Spanish and Latinamerican professors. Also, a glossary, and a selected bibliography about Cela's works is included.