Sunday, March 8, 2020

Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra

"The peculiar charm of this old dreamy palace is its power of calling up vague reveries and picturings of the past,..."

Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra (1832) relies upon the power and charm of the Alhambra to work its magic. Though no doubt Irving worked on those reveries for a while himself.

In 1829, Irving, already a professional writer, traveled to Spain, and in particular to Granada, where he had arranged to live in the Alhambra. Though he had originally intended to stay longer, he was only there six months before he was drafted into taking on the secretary role at the American embassy in London. But he gathered enough material in those six months to write this book.

It's structured as a travel or guide book, and it begins with his crossing the lonely mountains north of Granada and worrying about bandits. He arrives in Granada, establishes himself in the Alhambra, and hires Mateo as his guide/valet. He looks around the Alhambra and describes its various features, famous towers and halls, and here it functions particularly like a guide book.

But the truly fun part is the embedded tales, unsurprising from the man who brought us Rip van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving knew Spanish and ten years later he was the U.S. Ambassador to Spain, and he presents these tales as picked up in conversation, quite often from Mateo. They're Romantic--Irving was influenced by Sir Walter Scott--but have an ironic humor to them that lightens the romanticizing. There's the tale of the three Moorish princesses in the Tower of Princesses, or the Two Discreet Statues that indicate (to those who know) where (one of the) buried Moorish treasures are. My favorite story was the longest, the story of Ahmed the Perfect, or the Pilgrim of Love. Ahmed is a Moorish prince, and the prophecies say he will live long and happily in a happy realm if only his father can keep him from thinking about love until after his teen years are done. Well, we know how that will go, don't we? (Or do we?)

His prose is a little fulsome, with more adjectives than it needs (see above) but also is also capable of amusing ironies like this, "Mohammed the Left-handed was acknowledged to be a wise king by his courtiers and was certainly so considered by himself." He's also, especially for a New England Protestant of that period, surprisingly tolerant of Catholicism and even of Islam.

Anyway, quite a fun book and a better read than I thought it was going to be. My edition is printed in Spain, in Granada in fact, and has an introduction by R. Villa-Real, though I bought it in Chicago. Mr. Royal House is almost too appropriate as the author of an introduction to a book on the Alhambra. It also comes with colored engravings from the 19th century of the Alhambra that are an amusing accompaniment.


10 comments:

  1. WI is one of a kind... i read this a couple of years ago and went on to read "Astoria" which i liked even more... i've got some of his other works that i'll get to some time... maybe...

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    1. I read Astoria a couple of years ago & quite liked it, though I think I prefer Tales of the Alhambra.

      I haven't read the Sketch Book since high school, and I don't think I read it all then. Really makes me want to read (or reread) that.

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  2. Fun! I didn't know about these stories. I've only read Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. :)

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    1. And I haven't read that since high school. This makes me really want to reread the stuff I read then.

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  3. I've never read any Irving. I only know a little bit about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from Scooby Doo episodes probably.

    But he was really one of America's, if not the first, then one of the first celebrity authors.

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    1. I'm pretty sure I read some in high school. But it is possible the only thing I have in my head is the Scooby Doo version (or the Mr. Magoo version.)

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  4. I haven't read any Washington's. Have put Sleepy Hollow for my next Classics Club list, but I think this one would be more fun. Hmm... I think I might include this as well. Thanks, Reese, for your neat and nice review! :)

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    1. Glad you liked it, Fanda! Thanks.

      I need to reread Sleepy Hollow myself it's been so long.

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    1. It is pretty cool!

      I had trouble commenting on your blog the other day--I don't know where the problem was, but did you change anything in your settings recently? I should just try again & see if it was a one-time thing. The message was something about Google not responding, so it may have been.

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