Acting as a mirror for the fears and anxieties of the modern individual faced with society's transformations, the city gives shape to the ideal of progress, and summarises the frustrations
caused by the loss of this ideal. Equally problematic and paradoxical, the literary image of the metropolis gravitates between idealisation and demonisation, as demonstrated by the modern novel
from the nineteenth century to the present. In a trajectory that follows not only the topographic and social changes undergone by the city, but also the succession of narrative models that
reflect them, this book proposes a historical and critical revision of the literary image of the city of Barcelona, constructed and re-elaborated throughout the past one hundred and fifty
years.
