Recollections of the Alhambra

Written by Washington Irving

Narrated by Anastasia Bertollo

Washington Irving was one of the first romantics in the American literature. Irving stood at the origins of the new romantic genre in the American literature, and his essays were influenced by folklore, historical documents, sketches, legends, and national fairy tales.

Being the employee of the American diplomatic mission in Spain, Washington Irving gets to the well-known Alhambra palace. Three months, which he spent there, inspired him on writing historical descriptions and essays.

In the essay "Recollections of the Alhambra", the author depicts life and customs of Spain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SmartTouch Media
• Release date: Jan 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781467606509

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American writer, historian and diplomat. Irving served as the American ambassador to Spain in 1840s, and was among the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe. He argued that writing should be considered as a legitimate profession, and advocated for stronger laws to protect writers against copyright infringement. Irving’s love for adventure and drama influenced his work heavily. His most popular works, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, were inspired by his visit to the Catskill mountains. Irving is credited to have perfected the short story form, and inspired generations of American writer.

Reviews for Recollections of the Alhambra

[samtekoa · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the older style of writing, full of adjectives and sentimental and flowery descriptions of medieval Spain.The tales Washington Irving wrote were the oral tales passed from generation to generation among the common people. I drew comparisons between these tales and Don Quixote. An unusual and worthy read.

[ubaidd_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I just returned from a trip to Andalusia and one of the books I should have read before I went is Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (the other is South from Granada by Gerald Brenan). I was too overwhelmed by work and planning to get hold of these but I managed to finish the Tales on my way back from Spain. A little history of the book is in order here - Washington Irving was an American writer and diplomat. He wrote a biography of Prophet Mohammed and is also responsible for the short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow which was adapted into a movie by Tim Burton. Mr. Irving stayed in the Alhambra in Granada for a few months in the 1820s. Copies of Tales of the Alhambra are on sale everywhere in Granada and the author is much celebrated in that town. I saw a statue, a special exhibitions on Irving's life and explored his living quarters in the Alhambra palace, carefully preserved by the palace management. The reason for Irving's celebrity is this book - widely credited with having put Granada and its beautiful palace on the map. So is the book, and by extension, the writer worthy of such adulation? I think not. Tales of the Alhambra is a loose collection of legends about the palace and essays by Irving on his experience of living in it. I found two main themes in the legends narrated by Irving, hidden Moorish treasure and forbidden love between the Muslim Moors and the Christian Spaniards. Some of the author's reflections are revealing and his description of the beautiful Palacios Nazaries is precise but the overall perspective is excessively romantic. A worthy read if you are planning to travel to Granada and the Alhambra, not otherwise.

[icanabibbelg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Washington Irving's dreamlike description of Spain's Granada and the beautiful Moorish castle, the Alhambra, remains one of the most entertaining travelogues ever written. Enhanced here with exquisite Spanish guitar music, the narrative is a heady mix of fact, myth, and depictions of secret chambers, desperate battles, imprisoned princesses, palace ghosts, and fragrant gardens, described in a wistful and dreamlike eloquence, will transport listeners to a paradise of their own.

[deebee1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Irving published this collection in 1832, some time after traveling to Spain and being an actual resident of the Alhambra for several months. Enchanting, dream-like, and with a timeless quality, Irving writes so beautifully and seamlessly in a collection of essays, stories, and legends about the Moors in Granada, that form this travelogue. I have never read anything like it which seemed to put me in a kind of wondrous spell each time i sat down to read. The book first took its hold of me when i was in Granada myself just a few weeks back opening the book for the first time seated on a bench under the shadow of the walls of the Alhambra. Being where I was, i felt i was inside the book and was also a spectator of the images and events so vividly described. The feeling just lingered till the last page --- the prose is that magical.

[jcbrunner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A perfect little travel book about a marvel of humanity, the Alhambra in Spain, written by the perfect man for the job: An open-minded American writer, familiar with the tradition of German fairy tales and schooled in Spanish history, who combines the fresh look and inquisitiveness of the outsider with a deep local knowledge of having lived for an extended time in Spain and for some months in the palace himself. Before enchanting the reader with tales of love, treasure, knights and princesses, Irving presents a nuanced picture of the country, the city, its people and the palace (in its then sorry state). The tales are a wonderful amalgam of Christian morality, Arab lore and local mysteries. Sometimes. a tale's resolution is too prolonged for modern readers, partially compensated by its charming vignettes.This edition, printed in Spain, includes a complementing set of gorgeous photographs of the Alhambra. Future editions might benefit from a map of the Alhambra for convenience.

[phoenixcomet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So I'm hiking the massive hill to the Alhambra and suddenly I see this statue. OK, who's the dude on the statue? Turns out it is none other than Hudson Valley's Washington Irving. In 1829, Irving traveled from Seville to Granada and ended up staying for months at the Alhambra, one of the finest examples of Moorish architecture. During his stay, he gathered legends and tales together that surround the Alhambra and ultimately published this book in 1832. The tales are well written, descriptive and bring you back to a different time and place, like all of Irving's tales do.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a great tale. Irving jumped between his real time and the Moorish past as he toured the Alhambra. Weaving a tale of horror, suspense and romance, he kept my interest to the point where I had difficulty at times pulling myself out of the tale. My book has photographs of the Alhambra in it. It was an edition which my grandmother bought when she went there.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This had three layers for me, the first layer was some sweet stories told in a folkloric way, almost as if they came out of the translations of the 1001 nights, told of a time when both Muslim and Christian lived in varying degrees of peace and war in Spain. Centered around the Alhambra. I have an ambition to some day visit the Alhambra and this made that ambition more marked.The second layer was a wistfulness for the past, a wishing for a simpler time, a fairytale othertime when things were simpler and less fraught by modern issues. The illustrations, by Theaker and nameless others, were sweet but didn't always mesh all that well with the text.The third layer is as a historian, the occasional judgements on people and in particular women, show the attitudes of Irving himself up, and his time, which was also interesting, if occasionally jarring.Overall it's an interesting collection of stories, worth reading, evocative of both a time that never was and Irving's own desires.