A review by Robert Bovington
As
an avid reader of books about Spain, I have mixed feelings about this
book. Certainly, I did not enjoy it as much as other books that I have
read on the subject. I found Howells’ literary style too verbose. I
wonder whether the author thought: “Why use two or three pithy
adjectives when two or three pages of text will do the same job!”
He
describes with great detail the strangers that he encounters on his
travels, yet often provides little detail on the principal sights. Many
of Howells’ sentences are inordinately long – 40, 50 words or more! Yet,
despite his longwinded descriptions, Howells manages to convey his
thoughts to the reader in both a poetic and an extremely descriptive
manner. The reader can easily imagine the bleakness of the Meseta and
the “insurpassably dirty and dangerous” gipsy quarters of Granada and
Seville.
Howells certainly was not, what we today call, politically
correct. He frequently describes some of the Spanish women as fat. Nor
did the author view his surroundings with rose tinted spectacles. He
mentions bad breakfasts; freezing hotels, cold rainy streets and “the
thick and noisome stench” of Cervantes former home in Valladolid. But he
waxed lyrical about a great deal of his experiences too: the
incomparable grandeur of Burgos Cathedral; the glorious masterpiece that
is Murillo’s “Vision of St Anthony”; the unparalleled beauty of the
Alhambra and the magnificent structure that is the Puente Nuevo in Ronda
are shortened versions of just some of his descriptions.
I know
people’s tastes are different but what really surprised me was the
author’s likes and dislikes regarding the places he visited. He did not
like Córdoba but, to be fair, it was raining during his visit and he
described the houses as “wet and chill”. However, he was also
disappointed in that city’s beautiful Mezquita. Yet he really liked
Algeciras!
Certainly, from the author’s text, I gathered that he
preferred ‘people watching’ to visiting the famous sights, which
probably explains the imbalance between his descriptions of people and
his accounts of the places visited. But, then, the whole expedition was
unbalanced. He spent only half an hour in Toledo’s magnificent Cathedral
and not much longer in the Mezquita, yet he visited Seville Cathedral
every day during his fortnight’s stay! He appears to have enjoyed
Madrid, especially the Prado and he was greatly taken with Granada
though, more for the views from within and without the Alhambra than for
the wonderful Arabic architecture. He preferred the Palace of Charles V
to the Nasrid Palaces in that magnificent monument to the Moors rule in
Spain.
Notwithstanding the author’s idiosyncrasies, “Familiar Spanish Travels” will probably be an enjoyable read for those readers who wish to partake of a “warts and all” commentary of life in early 20th century Spain.
Robert Bovington
21 May 2015
1913 hard cover |
1923 reproduction |
Kindle |
"Photographs of Spain"
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"Spanish Impressions"
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"postcards from Spain"
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"you couldn't make it up!"
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"a grumpy old man in Spain"
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"Spanish Expressions"
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"Spanish Art"
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"Books About Spain"
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