45. Verdaguer and Barcelona
His works, some forty in various genres, are significant evidence of the changes in Barcelona society in the second half of the 19th century. The poet’s voice was heard in pamphlets, in the press and at public events, yet above all in the books he published in Barcelona where he had his centre of literary operations.
The scope of Verdaguer’s output, his life journey and the mark he left on society made him the first great contemporary poet. The writer became a symbol for the people who identified with him, while at the same time his intellectual outlook, expressed in his writings, turned him into a critical conscience.