The Alhambra
Some books age with the passing of time while others maintain their youth fresh and untarnished. This is the case with the "Tales of the Alhambra" by Washington Irving. A North American diplomat, historian and traveller, he lived for some time in the very Alhambra itself. His book, published for the first time in 1832, was immediately translated into many languages and attracted to Granada pilgrims from every latitude. In it we find a highly romantic outlook, all colour and atmosphere, together with acutely-observed, first-hand impressions full of subtlety, humour and feeling. Here on the one hand we become acquainted with the local legends and traditions which maintain today the enchantment of yesterday; on the other hand, we have superb realistic sketches of the strange world of that nineteenth-century Alhambra, so alive, so real: ordinary men and women, invalid soldiers, beggars. These may even be the most evocative pages in the book. Interspersed throughout are illustrations in the form of contemporary engravings which reveal all the romantic charm of the environs and the inhabitants of the Alhambra of that time. This was the period when great artists such as Robers, Lewis, and Dore discovered and re-created its atmosphere. To illustrate Irving's book with these engravings not only embellishes it but in a sense completes it.