Wanderings in Spain cover

Wanderings in Spain

Rating 3.9
Word count
822K words
Chapters
83

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Wanderings in Spain by Théophile GautierAuthor: Gautier, Théophile, 1811-1872,Language: English, Class: DP: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Spain, Portugal, Release Date: Aug 9, 2016

Editor's review

Wanderings in Spain is a Spanish travelogue by the French writer Théophile Gautier and belongs to nineteenth-century travel literature. Its appeal lies not in practical guidebook information but in the author's keen observation and vivid prose as he records towns, local customs, and journeys, charged with a strong personal aesthetic. For today's readers it is more a window onto nineteenth-century Spanish society and the traveler's eye, and can also be read as a model of travel writing. As a Project Gutenberg public-domain e-book, it is easy to browse and excerpt. Readers are advised to slow down and treat it as a literary travelogue rather than a guide; some familiarity with Gautier's aestheticism will make its pleasures easier to appreciate.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who enjoy nineteenth-century European travel literature
  • Readers interested in Spanish history, culture, and local life
  • Writers who want to learn travel writing and scenic description
  • Researchers who need a public-domain English travel text

Not a good fit for

  • Readers looking for a contemporary travel guide to Spain
  • Readers who prefer fast-paced narrative or plotted fiction
  • Readers unaccustomed to nineteenth-century prose style

Reading tips

  1. Read in the order of the author's journey, treating it as a slow paper voyage.
  2. Excerpt striking descriptions of places as you go, to appreciate his observation and word choice.
  3. Briefly learn about Gautier and aestheticism beforehand to grasp his aesthetic orientation.
  4. Use a map of Spain to locate the place names in the book, enhancing the sense of space.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Can this book serve as a practical guide for traveling to Spain?
It is not recommended for that. It is a nineteenth-century literary travelogue, focused on the author's observations and impressions; it offers no contemporary practical information on transport or lodging. For travel in Spain today, find a modern guide instead; this book is better read as cultural background before a trip.
Is Gautier's style hard to read?
His prose is attentive to colour and sensory description, with literary sentences typical of nineteenth-century style. Readers used to fast modern texts will need to adjust, but it is not obscure overall; reading slowly and attending to his descriptive method can actually make it enjoyable.
What level of reader is this English edition suitable for?
The original is an English translation, in nineteenth-century literary prose with a rich vocabulary. Readers with college-level English reading ability can generally read it through; where unfamiliar place names and allusions arise, annotations or reference material can help.

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About the author

Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) was a French poet, novelist and critic, with 24 works held in this collection. His verse collection Émaux et camées (Enamels and Cameos) is known for its finely wrought language and pursuit of formal beauty, and is regarded as a practice of the doctrine of art for art's sake; the two volumes of Poésies Complètes gather his poetry. In fiction, Mademoiselle de Maupin and One of Cleopatra's Nights and Other Fantastic Romances display his romantic and fantastical narrative interests. Gautier's style attends closely to color, line and sensory experience, and influenced later aesthetic literature. Public information is limited, so biographical details are not elaborated here.

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