Caterina Albert i Paradís.
Víctor Català is one of the most important writers in the history of the Catalan language, and she—yes, she—forged a path for herself in an era when women were rarely encouraged to pursue a literary career.
She would write one of the major Catalan-language works of the Modernist period, the novel Solitud, in 1905. The themes of her seminal work deal with the search for individuality, and the question of whether or not a woman in Victorian society could achieve an autonomous, free existence. The novel has been translated into multiple languages and adapted for the stage and (twice) for the screen.
However, while her work is most often cited as a shining example of the modernisme movement, she was known to insist that her work was “eclectic,” and didn’t fall under the heading of any one category, genre, or label.
A Scandalous Beginning
Self portrait of Caterina Albert.
“Víctor’s” real name was Caterina Albert i Paradís. Born to a prominent family of rural landowners in 1869 in L’Escala, her father was renowned lawyer and liberal politician, Lluís Albert, who would later become mayor of l’Escala. Her mother was Dolors Paradís, a society gentlewoman who played the piano and wrote poetry.
As the eldest of four siblings, and a girl, the expectation was that Caterina would grow up to make an advantageous marriage to help increase the family’s wealth and position. However, she wasn’t interested in the same things that many girls of her age and social status were interested in: instead of imagining her wedding day, she experimented with sculpture and drawing. She was lucky in the sense that both her parents encouraged her interest in literature and art from the beginning.
Caterina was self-taught: she read books and magazines, including satirical magazines that included political commentary, and began exploring painting and writing at a young age. She wrote one of the stories that would eventually be published in her collection Drames Rurals, “Parricidi,” when she was only fourteen.
Encouraged by her family championing her interests, she decided to try sharing her work with a wider audience. Her instincts were eventually rewarded when her theatrical monologue La Infanticida—along with a poem titled Lo Llibre Nou—received recognition when she was awarded the Jocs Florals d’Olot prize in 1898. However, when the prize’s jury discovered that this monologue dealing with infanticide had been written by a young woman, the scandal was huge. So huge, in fact, that the work would not be performed again publicly until a year after her death—a posthumous honor, in 1967, that took place at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.
This backlash is what inspired Caterina to adopt a male pseudonym, and “Víctor Català” was born. After all, a male writer could discuss controversial themes without the same kind of outrage and censorship that a female writer would have to suffer.
Masthead for modernist magazine "Joventut."
Finding Success
The satirical magazine l’Almanch de L’Esquella de la Torratxa published her very first poems under the pen name Virgili d’Alacseal between 1897 and 1900.
Then, in the year 1900—having already created “Víctor”—she began her collaboration with modernist magazine Joventut, which for the next six years served as a platform to help launch her into the broader public consciousness. Her works during this first stage of her career include poetry collections—El Cant dels Mesos, (1901) and El Llibre Blanc, (1905)—as well as a book of theatrical monologues, 4 Monologues en Vers, also published in 1901.
But of all the genres that Caterina explored, she is best known for her narrative prose. In 1902, she published a collection of stories called Drames Rurals, which she also illustrated. The book’s success was swift and dramatic, and she soon followed it up with two more collections of stories: Ombrívoles in 1904, and Caires Vius in 1907. Her most famous work and first novel, Solitud, was published in a series of installments in the magazine Joventut in 1904 and 1905. The publishing company Biblioteca Joventut published it as a novel in 1905.
Caterina Albert i Paradís with her three sisters. Image courtesy of the Albert family.
The recurring themes of her work were women and their place in society—especially rural society—and the doomed position of the individual versus society. The topics of female sexual desire, loneliness, motherhood, criticism of the institution of marriage, and aging are all themes she explored in an era when women were largely at the mercy of their family’s or greater society’s expectations, as well as largely marginalized in the world of the arts. All her works are set in a rural backdrop, and all were touched by some kind of affliction, such as violence, mental illness, or death. Her dark humor and fatalism often drew comparisons to Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen or French writer Guy de Maupassant, who were known for their realism and naturalistic determinism.
In spite of the generally favorable reception to her writing, she wasn’t without her detractors: Caterina exchanged letters with well-respected Catalan poet and journalist Joan Maragall, who was critical of her dark portrayal of the human condition. Caterina wasn’t cowed, however, and continued to write as she pleased. (In later years, Margall would become a fan.) She also exchanged correspondence with other important writers of the time, such as Narcís Oller and Àngel Guimerà, among others.
She was careful to preserve her privacy, maintaining a separation between her public and private life—even when it was inevitably discovered that “Víctor” was actually Caterina. However, the fact that she never married, and the strength and expressiveness of her opinions, made not a few male critics uncomfortable.
Caterina Albert in her study, image courtesy of Museu de l’Escala.
A Period of Silence
After her initial stellar success, the noucentista movement became fashionable, and Caterina began her first period of literary silence. Her portrayal of the individual as weak and dominated by base instincts, faced with extreme situations outside of human control—told with dark humor and an often cynical detachment—made her the target of noucentista criticisms. This Catalan cultural movement was the exact opposite of modernisme: it celebrated rationalism, classicism, order, and considered the urban environment to be the center of the world.
As a result, Caterina didn’t publish again until 1926, when the company Editorial Catalana put out several of her works between that year and 1930, including the collection of short stories La Mare Balena (1920); her second and last novel, Un Film (1926); an anthology, Marines (1928), and another collection of stories, Contrallums (1930).
Caterina Albert presiding over the Jocs Florals in 1917, image courtesy of Museu de l’Escala.
In the meantime, she maintained a close relationship with the Jocs Florals, even presiding over the judging in the year 1917. Caterina also became a member of the Academy of Catalan Language in 1915 and the Royal Academy of Fine Letters in 1923.
The writer’s second period of silence came during the upheaval caused by the Spanish Civil War; after it ended, she published her first collection of short stories in Spanish, Retablo, in 1944. Soon after came Mosaic, III, in 1946—a collection of short, autobiographical prose. She later started a collaboration with the publishing house Selecta, which o published her narrative collections Vida Mòlta (1950), and Jubileu (1951), as well as her Obres Completes (“Complete Works”) in 1951, as well as a rerelease several years after her death, in 1972.
Throughout her life, her visual art took a back seat to her writing, but in 1955, she participated in the only visual arts exposition to feature her work during her lifetime, at the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc in Barcelona.
Caterina Albert i Paradís.
Víctor Català Remembered
Caterina a.k.a. Víctor died in 1966, and is buried in the Cementiri Vell de l’Escala.
Today, there are several spaces in Catalunya devoted to her legacy. The most notable was founded by her nephew and godson, Lluís Albert; he inaugurated the Víctor Català Museum-Archive in the year 1975, on an estate in Clos de Pastor that had been donated by an avid reader of Caterina’s works: Antònia Bartomeu i Baró. Bartomeu organized literary gatherings on the palatial estate until her death, when she willed the property to Caterina, who in turn left the estate to her nephew.
In 2017, Lluís Albert donated his aunt’s artistic and literary collection—including the original manuscript for her novel Solitud—to the L’Escala City Council. The Council later acquired the estate as well, which has been remodeled with help from the Girona Provincial Council. The renovations took time, and were carried out over a number of years; as recently as 2024, the L’Escala City Council inaugurated a new space on the grounds.
Today, the displays within the palatial, turreted building located on the estate showcase Caterina’s oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculptures alongside her literary work, as well as other facets of her life. The Modernist garden—with its pond, sculptures, and fountain—has been used as the site of theatrical productions, poetry readings, and concerts. In this way, Víctor Català’s legacy is not only preserved, but also provides a space for other young artists to showcase their own artistic offerings.