Washington Irving, página 6 de 23

En este volumen el lector encontrará una selección de los Cuentos de la Alhambra. Dicha selección se justifica por los imperativos de edición y, aunque inevitablemente algo se deja, es tan amplia que no echa a perder en ningun momento la unidad ni el proposito del libro.El caracter romantico de los Cuentos de la Alhambra radica en gran medida, junto a la obvia eleccion de los temas, en la equiparacion entre el espacio exterior, escenico, y el espacio interior, psicologico. Irving, que, como se ha dicho, no se preocupo nunca de investigar en las profundidades animicas de sus personajes, consiguio, sin embargo, en los Cuentos que las descripciones de la Alhambra actuaran como referentes constantes de las circunvoluciones mentales del autor. Lo objetivo se hacia asi subjetivo, sin perder en ningun momento la conexion con el mundo real. Y esto en si puede ya considerarse un exito duradero.

Tras su llegada a España Washington Irving inicia un recorrido por tierras andaluzas. Durante su visita a Granada queda extasiado por la majestuosidad de la Alhambra en cuyas habitaciones tiene la fortuna de alojarse. Alli conoce a varios personajes que le acompañaran durante su estancia en tierras granadinas. De las conversaciones con estos y de las historias que escucha a su fiel criado y guia Mateo Jimenez transcribira leyendas y tradiciones transmitidas de padres a hijos durante generaciones. De esta forma con sus Cuentos de la Alhambra Washington Irving escribio una rica y detallada cronica de la España de la primera mitad del siglo XIX y sobre todo supo transmitir la magia y el misterio de toda una epoca. Porque algunas de las narraciones que componen el cuerpo central de la obra -la del astrologo arabe que contribuyo con su magia a derrotar a los ejercitos enemigos; la de las tres hermosas princesas encerradas en una torre para que no se enamoraran; la del peregrino del amor tambien encerrado en una torre por su celoso padre; la del legado del moro que nos habla de un fabuloso tesoro encontrado por un aguador; la de la Rosa de la Alhambra en que se nos muestra un laud maravilloso capaz de curar la melancolia del rey- bien podrian provenir de Las mil y una noches.

In The Sketch-Book Washington Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, `Rip Van Winkle' and `The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'.

Contiene ilustraciones. Acompaña CD-ROM Washington Irving fue entre 1826 y 1829 agregado de la embajada de su pais en España. Fruto de esta experiencia fueron algunas obras de tema español, como una biografia sobre Cristobal Colon, y los populares Cuentos de la Alhambra, narraciones de historias tradicionales españolas, de una imaginacion encantadora. Hay en ellas un deseo de escapar de la monotona realidad del presente para vivir las tristemente desaparecidas glorias del pasado.

La historia toma lugar en 1784, en los alrededores del asentamiento holandés de Tarry Town (Nueva York), en un apartado valle llamado Sleepy Hollow. El lugar es conocido por sus fantasmas y el ambiente embrujado que impregna la imaginacion de sus habitantes y visitantes. El espectro mas infame del lugar es el Jinete sin Cabeza, de quien se dice que es el fantasma de un antiguo soldado que fue alcanzado en la cabeza por una bala de cañon durante "

Knickerbockers History Of New York was published in 1809. Nearly forty years later Washington Irving, the real author, says it was his purpose in the history to embody the traditions of New York in an amusing form, to illustrate its local humors, customs and peculiarities in a whimsical narrative, which should help to bind the heart of the native inhabitant to his home. He adds: "In this I have reason to believe I have in some measure succeeded. Before the appearance of my work the popular traditions of our city were unrecorded; the peculiar and racy customs and usages derived from our Dutch Progenitors were unnoticed, or regarded with indifference, or adverted to with a sneer. Now they form a convivial currency, and are brought forward on all occasions; they link our whole community together in good humor and good fellowship; they are the rallying-points of home feeling, the seasoning of our civic festivities, the staple of local tales and local pleasantries; and are so harped upon by our writers of popular fiction that I find myself almost crowded off the legendary ground which I was the first to explore by the host who have followed in my footsteps.

THE customary antithesis between "American" literature and "English" literature is unfortunate and misleading in that it seems to exclude American authors from the noble roll of those who have contributed to the literature of our mother-tongue. Of course, when we consider it carefully we cannot fail to see that the literature of a language is one and indivisible and that the nativity or the domicile of those who make it matters nothing. Just as Alexandrian literature is Greek, so American literature is English; and as Theocritus demands inclusion in any account of Greek literature, so Thoreau cannot be omitted from any history of English literature as a whole. The works of Anthony Hamilton and Rousseau, Mme. de Stael and M. Maeterlinck are not more indisputably a part of the literature of the French language than the works of Franklin and Emerson, of Hawthorne and Poe are part of the literature of the English language. Theocritus may never have set foot on the soil of Greece, and Thoreau never adventured himself on the Atlantic to visit the island-home of his ancestors; yet the former expressed himself in Greek and the latter in English,and how can either be neglected in any comprehensive survey of the literature of his own tongue?...

Esti relatu del gran autor norteamericanu Washington Irving (1783-1859) narra les aventures d’un maestru d’escuela rural no qu’actualmente ye l’estáu de Nueva York, pobláu nel sieglu XVIII por colono

Versión del inglés, prólogo y notas por el ingeniero Luis Báez Díaz

ROUGH draughts of some of the following tales and essays were actually written during a residence in the Alhambra; others were subsequently added, founded on notes and observations made there. Care was taken to maintain local coloring and verisimilitude; so that the whole might present a faithful and living picture of that microcosm, that singular little world into which I had been fortuitously thrown; and about which the external world had a very imperfect idea. It was my endeavor scrupulously to depict its half Spanish, half Oriental character; its mixture of the heroic, the poetic, and the grotesque; to revive the traces of grace and beauty fast fading from its walls; to record the regal and chivalrous traditions concerning those who once trod its courts; and the whimsical and superstitious legends of the motley race now burrowing among its ruins.