New commemorative edition of the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language to celebrate the centenary of Camilo José Cela, one of the most important Spanish writers of the twentieth century.

Considered one of the best Spanish novels of the twentieth century, La colmena is a choral work set in post-war Madrid, for a few days in 1943. With it the author wanted to show the social reality of those difficult years of the history of Spain. The protagonists belong to the middle class and lead a life that seems to be paralyzed, without a real and hopeful future, by the situation of the country.

The small scenes that are narrated in this work occur simultaneously. The lives of the characters intertwine forming a mosaic like the cells of a beehive.

To circumvent censorship, Camilo José Cela was forced to eliminate some scenes in which sexual content was discussed. Once the Franco regime ended, these scenes were never restored in any of the numerous editions that were carried out. This edition includes these scenes: with them, The Hive is presented to the reader, for the first time, in an integral way, as the author conceived it.

This edition presents complementary studies written by some of the main Spanish critics, writers and academics, as well as a glossary, an index of proper names and a selected bibliography on Cela's work.