Spain: A Literary Companion
Condition: SECONDHAND
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"What a country is Spain for a traveller," remarked Washington Irving, "where the most miserable inn is as full of adventure as an enchanted castle." He was not the first to be captivated. A country of immense contrasts, Spain has always inspired writers and travellers, and in this book the reader accompanies them into a history and culture enriched by the influence of other lands and by the wealth of a great empire, though seared as well by frequent wars. Against a "panorama of coral and gold, of violet and cristalline silver", in Ortega y Gasset's phrase, observers as varied as Byron and Dumas, St Teresa of Avila and Virginia Woolf, Juvenal, Cervantes and Lorca combine to create a portrait of Spain.
Not a book for those looking simply for the Spain of tourist brochures, or even those who share Laurie Lee's childhood dream of "walking down a white dusty road through groves of orange trees", this is for seekers after the real Spain, seen perhaps from horseback or from a steam-train; or rising from the sea "like some rust-corroded wreck"; from a Barcelona rooftop during the Civil War as gunfire spatters the city; or at night in the Alhambra, waiting for bottles of sherry to cool in the alabaster fountains.
Author: Jimmy Burns
Format: Hardback, 256 pages, 144mm x 222mm, 460 g
Published: 1994, John Murray Press, United Kingdom
Genre: Anthologies, Essays, Letters & Miscellaneous
"What a country is Spain for a traveller," remarked Washington Irving, "where the most miserable inn is as full of adventure as an enchanted castle." He was not the first to be captivated. A country of immense contrasts, Spain has always inspired writers and travellers, and in this book the reader accompanies them into a history and culture enriched by the influence of other lands and by the wealth of a great empire, though seared as well by frequent wars. Against a "panorama of coral and gold, of violet and cristalline silver", in Ortega y Gasset's phrase, observers as varied as Byron and Dumas, St Teresa of Avila and Virginia Woolf, Juvenal, Cervantes and Lorca combine to create a portrait of Spain.
Not a book for those looking simply for the Spain of tourist brochures, or even those who share Laurie Lee's childhood dream of "walking down a white dusty road through groves of orange trees", this is for seekers after the real Spain, seen perhaps from horseback or from a steam-train; or rising from the sea "like some rust-corroded wreck"; from a Barcelona rooftop during the Civil War as gunfire spatters the city; or at night in the Alhambra, waiting for bottles of sherry to cool in the alabaster fountains.