first Spanish edition published by Destino, Barcelona, 1974, which bears a few minor variants, mainly in paragraph structure. It has been reprinted a number of times and translated into many languages and is one of the most widely read Spanish texts in the 20th century. This edition is aimed primarily at sixth-formers and university undergraduates and the introduction and notes have been compiled in the light of recent socio-politial topic-based syllabuses and communication studies courses. The inclusion in the introduction of a substantial section on the now out-of-print "Contraataque" (1937), the wartime narrative which contains the germ of the post-war novel, is intended to provide the student with a context for the study of the process in Sender's writing inspired by the Civil War - from explicit militant propaganda penned in the heat of battle to implicit poetic parable, historical emotion recollected in the comparative tranquillity and distance of exile. It is hoped that such a juxtaposition will illuminate both the content and literary achievement of "Requiem".

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