Lion Feuchtwanger’s This Is the Hour is a richly imagined historical novel about Francisco Goya at the decisive moment when he begins to change from a successful painter of court portraits into the fearless and unsettling artist we remember today.
Set amid the splendour, corruption and religious repression of late eighteenth-century Spain, it follows Goya’s relationship with the Duchess of Alba while tracing his growing awareness of poverty, injustice and the abuse of power.
The novel is important today because it asks a question that remains urgent: what responsibility does an artist have when those in authority demand silence or obedience?
Feuchtwanger presents art not merely as decoration, but as a form of witness—something capable of exposing hypocrisy, resisting oppression and preserving truths that powerful people would prefer to conceal.
This book translated from the German, was published by Hutchinson in 1952. It is in good condition. Binding is intact. It includes the dust-jacket which is complete, but frayed at the edges.
