I could see the beautiful mosaics and hand carved details. Last night I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning listening to this wonderful book which paints the picture, the history and the culture of the Alhambra in such vivid detail that I was enchanted and transported. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who savors wonderful stories, read well. I will listen to this book again, and I don't think or feel that way about most of the books I listen to even if I have truly enjoyed them.
As the book ended I felt truly sad that it was over. I found him easy to listen to and clear in his reading. The reader has a voice that fits perfectly with the material. This entire volume is appropriate for family listening perhaps something much better to excite imagination than a pile of DVDs for the kids on a family vacation road trip. The end of each story left me with a positive sense of satisfaction. Each one is interesting, exciting, and has an ending in which right triumphs. The stories are in the Arabian Nights tradition and throughly enjoyable.
The way he describes the people-in real life and in the stories-caused me to see and understand them well additionally the descriptions are frequently rather funny. “Perhaps there never was a monument more characteristic of an age and people than the Alhambra a rugged fortress without, a voluptuous palace within war frowning from its battlements poetry breathing throughout the fairy architecture of its halls.I can hardly express how much I enjoyed this book! The detail that Irving wrote allowed me to see what he saw in the Alhambra, along the road to from, and the environs of Granada with great clarity. His notes and writing capture a moment in time that is forever lost to us. His “discovery” and writing reintroduced the Alhambra to western consciousness. “How unworthy is my scribbling of the place.” The book is a mix of history and myth, description and memoir, although he admitted his writing would never do the setting justice. I love the thought of him camping out for months in the ruined palace, scribbling furiously in his notebooks and producing an evocative collection of sketches and stories entitled Tales of the Alhambra. He was granted access to the Alhambra by the archbishop of Granada and engaged a guide – Mateo Ximenes – to explore. “a most picturesque and beautiful city, situated in one of the loveliest landscapes that I have ever seen.” Travelling in Spain and coming to Granada to research a history book, he described the place as:
Irving had achieved some celebrity status with stories such as Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow but he was suffering writers block. Of course I’m neither the first nor the last tourist to visit the Alhambra. Back in 1829 a romantic traveller and writer by the name of Washington Irving arrived.
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