The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind

by

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Shadow of the Wind makes teaching easy.

Julián Carax Character Analysis

Julián Carax is a brilliant but little-known author whose work Daniel discovers by chance in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. While he’s a native of Barcelona, he’s left no trace of his life in the city; as Daniel becomes fascinated with him and digs into his past, he realizes that Julian’s life was shaped by his illicit love for his wealthy friend’s sister, Penélope Aldaya, and that he’s spent most of his life hiding from the Aldaya family and from Inspector Fumero, who was also in love with Penélope. More disconcertingly, Daniel finds that his own life starts to parallel Carax’s, from his upbringing above a Barcelona shop to his enmity with Inspector Fumero to his forbidden love for a girl from a different social class. One of the novel’s major questions is whether these parallels are the result of fate or arise from Daniel’s growing obsession with the author. After Carax discovers Penélope’s death, he adopts the alias Laín Coubert, the name of the devil in one of his books. As Laín, he can express the hatred and violent impulses he can’t in his ordinary life; it’s never clear to what extent Coubert is part of Carax’s persona, and to what extent he becomes his own entity.

Julián Carax Quotes in The Shadow of the Wind

The The Shadow of the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Julián Carax or refer to Julián Carax. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Duality and Repetition Theme Icon
).
City of Shadows: Chapter 16 Quotes

Sophie refused to reveal the identity of the child’s father…Antoni Fortuny decided that it must be the devil, for that child was the child of sin, and sin had only one father: the One. Convinced in this manner that it had sneaked into his home and also between his wife’s thighs, the hatter took to hanging crucifixes everywhere…

Related Characters: Julián Carax, Ricardo Aldaya (Mr. Aldaya), Antonio Fortuny, Sophie Carax
Related Symbols: Angels and Devils
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 17 Quotes

I imagined Julián Carax at that age, holding that image in his hands…and for a moment I thought there were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss, and that the light that smiled on me was borrowed light, real only as long as I could hold it in my eyes, second by second.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 20 Quotes

Julián lived in his books. The body that ended up in the morgue was only a part of him. His soul is in his stories. I once asked him who inspired him to create his characters, and his answer was no one. That all his characters were himself.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 31 Quotes

Nobody had noticed, nobody had paid attention, but as usual, the essential part of the matter had been settled before the story had begun, and by then it was too late.

Related Characters: Jacinta Coronado (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax, Penélope Aldaya
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 4 Quotes

It didn’t occur to him for an instant that Julián secretly despised him, that his affection was a sham, only a pretext to be close to Penélope. To possess her wholly and utterly. They did resemble each other in that.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Ricardo Aldaya (Mr. Aldaya)
Page Number: 383
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 8 Quotes

The hatter…had no doubt that Penélope was that love in his son’s life. Without realizing it, he thought that if he helped him recover her, perhaps he, too, would recover some part of what he had lost, that void that weighed on his bones like a curse.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Penélope Aldaya, Antonio Fortuny
Page Number: 407
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 11 Quotes

He hated the man who had caused this calamity, this trail of death and misery: himself. He hated those filthy books to which he had devoted his life and about which nobody cared. He hated every stolen second and every breath.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 13 Quotes

I discovered that Laín Coubert, impersonating Julián, had been roaming through the city and visiting the Aldaya mansion.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Laín Coubert / The Stranger
Page Number: 440
Explanation and Analysis:

I was afraid of listening to Julián and starting to believe, as he did, that we were all bound together in a strange chain of destiny, afraid of recognizing in you the Julián I had lost.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 445
Explanation and Analysis:

Of all the things that Julián wrote, the one I have always felt closest to my heart is that so long as we are being remembered, we remain alive…Remember me, Daniel, even if it’s only in a corner and secretly. Don’t let me go.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 446
Explanation and Analysis:
The Shadow of the Wind: Chapter 4 Quotes

It was Laín Coubert, just as I’d learned to fear him reading the pages of a book, so many years ago…I saw how the hand of the angel pierced [Fumero’s] chest, spearing him, how the accursed soul was driven out like black vapor, falling like frozen tears over the mirror of water.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax, Inspector Javier Fumero, Laín Coubert / The Stranger
Related Symbols: Angels and Devils
Page Number: 465
Explanation and Analysis:
Postmortem Quotes

I can’t remember his exact words, or the sound of his voice. I do know that he held my hand and I felt as if he were asking me to live for him, telling me I would never see him again. What I have not forgotten is what I told him. I told him to take that pen, which had always been his, and write again.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax
Related Symbols: The Fountain Pen
Page Number: 471
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Shadow of the Wind PDF

Julián Carax Quotes in The Shadow of the Wind

The The Shadow of the Wind quotes below are all either spoken by Julián Carax or refer to Julián Carax. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Duality and Repetition Theme Icon
).
City of Shadows: Chapter 16 Quotes

Sophie refused to reveal the identity of the child’s father…Antoni Fortuny decided that it must be the devil, for that child was the child of sin, and sin had only one father: the One. Convinced in this manner that it had sneaked into his home and also between his wife’s thighs, the hatter took to hanging crucifixes everywhere…

Related Characters: Julián Carax, Ricardo Aldaya (Mr. Aldaya), Antonio Fortuny, Sophie Carax
Related Symbols: Angels and Devils
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 17 Quotes

I imagined Julián Carax at that age, holding that image in his hands…and for a moment I thought there were no more ghosts there than those of absence and loss, and that the light that smiled on me was borrowed light, real only as long as I could hold it in my eyes, second by second.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 20 Quotes

Julián lived in his books. The body that ended up in the morgue was only a part of him. His soul is in his stories. I once asked him who inspired him to create his characters, and his answer was no one. That all his characters were himself.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 166
Explanation and Analysis:
City of Shadows: Chapter 31 Quotes

Nobody had noticed, nobody had paid attention, but as usual, the essential part of the matter had been settled before the story had begun, and by then it was too late.

Related Characters: Jacinta Coronado (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax, Penélope Aldaya
Page Number: 265
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 4 Quotes

It didn’t occur to him for an instant that Julián secretly despised him, that his affection was a sham, only a pretext to be close to Penélope. To possess her wholly and utterly. They did resemble each other in that.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Ricardo Aldaya (Mr. Aldaya)
Page Number: 383
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 8 Quotes

The hatter…had no doubt that Penélope was that love in his son’s life. Without realizing it, he thought that if he helped him recover her, perhaps he, too, would recover some part of what he had lost, that void that weighed on his bones like a curse.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Penélope Aldaya, Antonio Fortuny
Page Number: 407
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 11 Quotes

He hated the man who had caused this calamity, this trail of death and misery: himself. He hated those filthy books to which he had devoted his life and about which nobody cared. He hated every stolen second and every breath.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax
Page Number: 420
Explanation and Analysis:
Nuria Monfort: Chapter 13 Quotes

I discovered that Laín Coubert, impersonating Julián, had been roaming through the city and visiting the Aldaya mansion.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Julián Carax, Laín Coubert / The Stranger
Page Number: 440
Explanation and Analysis:

I was afraid of listening to Julián and starting to believe, as he did, that we were all bound together in a strange chain of destiny, afraid of recognizing in you the Julián I had lost.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 445
Explanation and Analysis:

Of all the things that Julián wrote, the one I have always felt closest to my heart is that so long as we are being remembered, we remain alive…Remember me, Daniel, even if it’s only in a corner and secretly. Don’t let me go.

Related Characters: Nuria Monfort (speaker), Daniel Sempere, Julián Carax
Page Number: 446
Explanation and Analysis:
The Shadow of the Wind: Chapter 4 Quotes

It was Laín Coubert, just as I’d learned to fear him reading the pages of a book, so many years ago…I saw how the hand of the angel pierced [Fumero’s] chest, spearing him, how the accursed soul was driven out like black vapor, falling like frozen tears over the mirror of water.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax, Inspector Javier Fumero, Laín Coubert / The Stranger
Related Symbols: Angels and Devils
Page Number: 465
Explanation and Analysis:
Postmortem Quotes

I can’t remember his exact words, or the sound of his voice. I do know that he held my hand and I felt as if he were asking me to live for him, telling me I would never see him again. What I have not forgotten is what I told him. I told him to take that pen, which had always been his, and write again.

Related Characters: Daniel Sempere (speaker), Julián Carax
Related Symbols: The Fountain Pen
Page Number: 471
Explanation and Analysis: