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by Mary Lee Settle

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  • ISBN: 0393020274
  • Category: Reference
  • Author: Mary Lee Settle
  • Subcategory: Writing Research & Publishing Guides
  • Other formats: mbr azw lrf txt
  • Language: English
  • Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (April 1, 2004)
  • Pages: 320 pages
  • FB2 size: 1719 kb
  • EPUB size: 1437 kb
  • Rating: 4.1
  • Votes: 628
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Mary Lee Settle's Spanish Recognitions is thus the ideal book for someone like me: someone who wants to read about Spain's rich history and who would like to travel there armed with historical and cultural knowledge but who is no. .

Mary Lee Settle's Spanish Recognitions is thus the ideal book for someone like me: someone who wants to read about Spain's rich history and who would like to travel there armed with historical and cultural knowledge but who is not sure how to get started. Of course the author's views of Spain are colored by her prejudices and pecadillos - THIS IS ALL HER OPINION. If I want dry accurate facts and figures I will read a text book, but I want to read what someone feels when standing in the same spot that St. Teresa stood in, or what it feels like to walk around the mountains of Extremadura.

Spanish Recognitions. The Roads to the Present . Mary Lee Settle (Author). At eighty-two years old, Mary Lee Settle set off alone to find the Spain she thought she knew. But, like Columbus on another voyage of discovery, she found something-many things-that she hadn't even known she was looking for. Winner of a National Book Award for fiction and author of an acclaimed book of travel and history on Turkey, Settle brings to her task the visual equivalent of perfect pitch. She follows the great, traumatic flows in Spanish history: the Moorish conquest from south to north, and the Christian reconquista several hundred years later in the opposite direction.

Wayne Hoffman, Washington Post Book World" At eighty-two years old, Mary Lee Settle set off alone to find the Spain she thought she knew

Wayne Hoffman, Washington Post Book World" At eighty-two years old, Mary Lee Settle set off alone to find the Spain she thought she knew. But, like Columbus on another voyage of discovery, she found something many things that she hadn't even known she was looking for.

com's Mary Lee Settle Page and shop for all Mary Lee Settle books. Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present. Check out pictures, bibliography, and biography of Mary Lee Settle.

SPANISH RECOGNITIONS: The Road to the Present by Mary Lee Settle. Norton, £. 9 £. 9 (free p&p). What she found instead is the subject of this book. She hired a car and drove where the road led m. When she was 17, like many Americans, Settle sympathised with a Spain suffering civil war. Five years ago, in her eighties, she went there, expecting to see the old wounds, the old fears.seeking more than looking and not wanting to define what I was seeking for fear of losing surprise. The result is remarkable.

My husband just finished "Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present" by Mary Lee Settle for the second time. Not about Northern Spain, but the Spain experience in general, some of it off the beaten path. I'm starting it now! Reply. Send a private message to tourart.

Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present by Settle, Mary Lee Paperback Th. Recognitions by Daniela I. Norris Book The Cheap Fast Free Post.

Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present by Settle, Mary Lee Paperback The. EUR . 7. List price Previous priceEUR 2. 5. List price Previous priceEUR 1. 6.

The author recalls her journey into the heart of Spain at the age of eighty-two, revealing the illusions and romanticism she carried into her voyage and the truths she gained along the way. 13,000 first printing.
Reviews about Spanish Recognitions: The Roads to the Present (7):
Lailace
This chronicle of a long ramble through parts of Spain by 82-year old (at the time) Mary Lee Settle is far from perfect in its detail and flow, but there is something quite endearing about it. Settle poked into some obscure corners of the country and discovered some fascinating people and places. Her descriptions of each encounter really make readers want to replicate the experience for themselves. The discomforts and limitations of an elderly traveler are unexpectedly interesting. Settle's forbearance and resolve to get on with the trip no matter what are also inspiring. This is an interesting and touching travel memoir that is definitely worth reading, especially if a trip to Spain is being planned by the reader.
JUST DO IT
Mary Lee Settle brings a sparkling sense of wit and passion to this memoir of her journeys through central and southern Spain. Our intrepid traveler made her journey alone, rented a car and drove herself across Spain, not able to speak Spanish. Even more amazing is that she did so at the ripe young age of eighty-two years old!

Spanish Recognitions is generally a pleasant read, although it loses steam in an anticlimactic finale. Settle begins her journey in Spain's capital, Madrid, winds through Castilla (Avila, Tordesillas, Zamora, Salamanca) and into southern Spain (Extremadura and Andalusia). Nary a mention is made of the architectural gems of Barcelona, the quest for an independent Basque country, or the lush green hills and Celtic legacy of Galicia, where bagpipes are the instrument de rigueur.

What Settle brings with her is a keen sense of living history, a touch of the supernatural (one of her visits to a Templar ruin hints at a credibility-straining otherworldly encounter), and decades of traveling experience. She respects Spanish culture and customs, and weaves seamlessly between important (often violent) battles from Spain's past and their effects on the present. Snippets of Spanish legend and folktale round out her explorations of archeological ruins and restoration projects.

Nearly 100 pages are devoted to the Islamic presence in Spain. North African Muslims (Moors) invaded Spain in 711 CE and retained power over a gradually shrinking Spanish kingdom until Ferdinand and Isabel conquered their last remaining stronghold, Granada, in 1492, followed by the expulsion of all Jews and Muslims that same year. This had severe repercussions for Spain, as talented doctors, bankers, craftsmen and scholars were lost and libraries of Arabic texts on medicine and learning, very advanced for their time, were burned during the Inquisition. Settle hints at how the Moorish kingdom was torn apart not by Christian soldiers and mercenaries, but by rival Islamic rulers and increasingly extremist fundamentalists who felt that certain rulers were engaging in un-Islamic behaviors. There is even a mention of Osama Bin Laden, who cited the theft of Al-Andalus (Andalusia) by the Christians in an early videotaped tirade.

The weakest part of the book is by far the final few chapters, which take some of the power away from the excellent musings on Islamic Spain's past glories. There is a sudden, jarring transition away from Granada to theories on Atlantis, of all things. But overall, Settle brings a joyful freshness to a much-written-about destination, with a child's sense of wonder and a love of exploring off the beaten bath. She makes long-lost footnotes of Spanish history come alive in a way that few writers are able to accomplish, and fans of Michener's Iberia will most likely enjoy Spanish Recognitions, as will most anyone who's had the good fortune to travel in Spain.
Dynen
This is a lovely account of one lady's tour through a country with which she so rightly tells us "no one in this new millennium should ignore... it was one of the first places mentioned as being stolen from the Muslims in an early televised Osama bin Laden tirade of bitterness and intent. ... Al-Andalus. Andalucia. Spain. Few in this country knew what he was talking about" (255). I (unknowingly following in Mary Lee Settle's footsteps) decided to find out.
Yet it was so difficult to discover any information about post-1492 Spain. I had a hard time finding books telling me about Knights Templar's history and tragic end in Il Torre Sangrienta (the tower of blood); giving me an intimate portrait of Black Virgin's of Guadalupe's haunting eyes; telling me of Unamunno's dramatic defiance of Franco's regime; or telling me the scandal in Zamora. And I had no joy at all in finding a book that tells the story of the many Spains (for in truth as Mary Lee Settle makes clear there is not ONE Spain but many) as though all its rich history grew up naturally--from the stones in the ground. As though this history were but part and parcel of the sights, sounds, and smell of modern Spain. Until, of course, I found this book.
For Mary Lee Settle's book does all of the above. She tells her and Spain's story from the vintage point of an often lost and eternally fascinated traveler. A traveler who romps through the physical Spain and through Spain's history equally and who manages to construct an immensely readable and thoroughly enjoyable book interweaving both journeys.
It is not, however, a history book and it freely admits this. Indeed, perhaps one of the most precious (to me) parts of this book is the frequent history book recommendations. Mary Lee Settle's Spanish Recognitions is thus the ideal book for someone like me: someone who wants to read about Spain's rich history and who would like to travel there armed with historical and cultural knowledge but who is not sure how to get started.
I highly recommend it.
Chankane
An 82 year old woman from an American coal mining region heads out to explore Spain on her own in a rental car, with very little Spanish, but a wealth of information she has read before hand. Her notes and thoughts through the journey are fascinating and revealing. Her insights into St. Theresa are original and enlightening, her discussion of the Roman remains in Merida are very interesting reading. In a few short paragraphs lays out why the Muslin religion took hold so well when it did, a description that is simple that I have not seen anywhere else. She takes her facts and transcends them into clear understanding in an impressive way. Without speaking the language she has the feel for the people and conveys it quite well. The last couple chapters tail off in strength, but the book is a definite read for anyone who has been to Spain and is in love with the country. Remarkable piece of work.

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