Modern Classics South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics) epub

by Gerald Brenan

ISBN: 0141189320

ISBN13: 978-0141189321

Author: Gerald Brenan

Category: Reference

Subcategory: Writing Research & Publishing Guides

Language: English

Publisher: Penguin Classic (May 27, 2008)

Pages: 320 pages

ePUB book: 1403 kb

FB2 book: 1591 kb

Rating: 4.9

Votes: 166

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Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain.

Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain. He is best known for The Spanish Labyrinth, a work of history on the background to the Spanish Civil War and for South From Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village. He was awarded a CBE in 1982, and was much honoured in Spain. Although it was first published over half a century ago, Gerald Brenan's "South from Granada" is still considered by many to be the canonical text about the Albujarra region of Spain's Sierra Nevada, the standard against which all other work is judged. Does it deserve its exalted reputation? You'll get no argument from me.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics. Chris Stewart (Introducer). Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen and South of Granada depicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Spanish way of life before the Civil War. Here he portrays the landscapes, festivals and folk-lore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship rituals, village customs, superstitions and characters.

And that also means constantly redefining and refreshing exactly what makes a ‘classic’. That’s where Modern Classics come in. Since 1961 they have been an organic, ever-growing and ever-evolving list of books that we believe will continue to be read over and over again. They will be summarily deleted.

South From Granada book. The best of Brenan's books: he has a true and proper knowledge of the culture he describes' Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times. A brilliant interpreter of Spain to the rest of the world' The Times. South From Granada Penguin Modern Classics. Chris Stewart is the author of Driving Over Lemons, which told the story of how Chris set up home in Spain to farm sheep and oranges and it went on to become an international best-seller.

Items related to South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics) 'The best of Brenan's books: he has a true and proper knowledge of the culture he describes' Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times.

Items related to South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics). Gerald Brenan South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics). ISBN 13: 9780141189321. South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics). Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain.

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Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western canon, though many titles are translated or of non-Western origin; indeed, the series for decades from its creation included only translations, until it eventually incorporated the Penguin English Library imprint in 1986.

South From Granada (Penguin Modern Classics). Author: Gerald Brenan. Publisher: Penguin Classics. Lonely Planet Andalucia (Travel Guide).

Part autobiography, part travelogue, and wholly a tribute to the unspoilt beauty of southern Spain, Gerald Brenan's South from Granada includes an introduction by Chris Stewart, author of the bestselling Driving Over Lemons, in Penguin Modern Classics. Between 1920 and 1934, Gerald Brenan lived in the remote Spanish village of Yegen and South of Granada depicts his time there, vividly evoking the essence of his rural surroundings and the Spanish way of life before the Civil War. Here he portrays the landscapes, festivals and folk-lore of the Sierra Nevada, the rivalries, romances and courtship rituals, village customs, superstitions and characters. Fascinating details emerge, from cheap brothels to archaeological remains, along with visits from Brenan's friends from the Bloomsbury group - Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf among them. Knowledgeable, elegant and sympathetic, this is a rich account of Spain's vanished past. Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) was an English writer who spent much of his life in Spain. He is best known for The Spanish Labyrinth, a work of history on the background to the Spanish Civil War and for South From Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village. He was awarded a CBE in 1982, and was much honoured in Spain If you enjoyed South from Granada, you might like Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'The best of Brenan's books: he has a true and proper knowledge of the culture he describes' Cyril Connolly, Sunday Times 'A brilliant interpreter of Spain to the rest of the world' The Times

This is a wonderful book. The sense of observation and the talent of describing those observations of Brenan is superb. Even if one is not interested in Spain and its people, which is not my case, it will love the details of the life of an Englishman in a backward hamlet of the mountains between Granada and Algeciras. Brenan left to Yegen just after fighting in World War I with his 1,600 books library. Yegen was a world in itself, completely detached from the rest of Spain and consequently of the planet. They did not know that WW I was fought just across the Pyrenees. They asked Brenan if he had fight against the "moros". It took me two days to digest that…
I recommend the readers to get some additional information about Brenan in Google. He was not a saint and he does not mention in the book the daughter that he had with a Spanish girl. He took his daughter with him to England and never allowed them to meet again. Brenan is nowadays considered a hero in Yegen because he put the hamlet in the map, but some people still reproach him because of the daughter episode. Great reading!

Although it was first published over half a century ago, Gerald Brenan's "South from Granada" is still considered by many to be the canonical text about the Albujarra region of Spain's Sierra Nevada, the standard against which all other work is judged. Does it deserve its exalted reputation? You'll get no argument from me.

Brenan writes intelligently and fluidly, and his account is always interesting, whether he is writing about his own personal experiences, or about his neighbors and the local customs of the Albujarra. As he was friends with members of the Bloomsbury circle, the book also contains an account of (separate) visits by Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf.

The following comments on Woolf nicely illustrate Brenan's perspicacity and generosity, two of the qualities that make this memoir so enjoyable to read:

"I want to emphasize Virginia's real friendliness on this occasion and the trouble she took to advise and encourage me, because her recklessness in conversation -- when she was over-excited she talked too much from the surface of her mind -- made some people think that she lacked ordinary sympathies. I was young for my age, and rather earnest. ... She on the other hand was a writer of great distinction, approaching the height of her powers. Yet she and her husband not only concealed the impatience they must often have felt, but treated me as though I was their intellectual equal."

Based on this book, I'm really looking forward to reading Brenan's writing on the Spanish Civil War.

I highly recommend "South from Granada". Readers with an interest in the region might also enjoy Chris Stewart's "Driving over Leemons".

A delight to read. So interesting to read about the history and prehistory of the area and the people where I have chosen to live, written in an almost mesmerising way. Quite enchanting.

Brenan's book is a finely written account of his life in a small village south of Granada in the 1920s. Written in the 1950s, it is partly a memoir, partly travel writing and partly history, and it is all good. A fascinating book. I will look for his other books now.

This book surely has its ethnographic merits, but there's another great reason to read it. Gerard Brenan is one of the most elegantly simple writers in the English language. The economy of his prose that never feels hurried perfectly suits the man for his observations of the unhurried, simple life he describes.

Brenan is indispensable feet-up, pot-of-tea- at- the- ready, Sunday afternoon reading. Here was a man, for whom the probably very strong influence of his own upbringing had no appeal for him and he followed his own muses. Also-if empire builders had shown his perception and gentle, generous spirit, it's a different world out here.

Makes me want to visit Granada

This is one of the most singular memoirs I have ever read. Brenan was in the right place at the right time and with the right temperament to record the last vestiges of some extremely ancient traditions. The uncorrupted "cante jondo" which he heard as a matter of everyday life may be the prehistoric Mediterranean song form and one of the festival customs he witnessed is thought by one scholar to be a vestige of the Roman Saturnalia.

Brenan was a man of parts. A formidable athlete, he once walked over 60 miles, with an elevation gain of 8000 feet, in one day. I have never heard of anything comparable other than perhaps when John Muir pushed his limits. His many mountain treks gave him expertise in alpine botany and the culture of shepherds (and bandits) in extreme isolation. In the hilarious chapter where an eccentric erotomaniac (who probably was impotent) took him on a guided tour of the brothels of Almeria, Brenan proved a master at recreating dialog with vividness and verisimilitude; this is a gift not given to even some of the greatest writers.

I wish this were available in a scholarly edition with a glossary of the many Spanish terms (especially for human character) which have no one-word equivalent in English. Michener also dwelt on this topic.