Letters from the Alhambra reveal the most personal and prívate aspects of Washington Irving

This morning, María del Mar Villafranca, Director of the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, has presented the first volume of Colección Plural of the Library of the Alhambra, entitled Cartas desde la Alhambra de Washington Irving. Antonio Garnica, Chair Professor in English at the University of Seville, who was not able to attend to the event for reasons of health, has published and translated the texts written by the North American writer from 1828 to 1829 as correspondence with relatives and friends during his sojourn in Granada.
The book contains 37 letters, unpublished in Spain until now, full of anecdotes and keys that – following the Director of the Patronato de la Alhambra – reveal the impressions of “an attentive, alert and sensitive traveler. The most private and dreamy aspects of Washington Irving are revealed”. A similar opinion has been mentioned by the journalist and publisher Manuel Mateo Pérez, who has anticipated that there will be soon an English version of Cartas desde la Alhambra and that it is on sale for 20 € in bookstores of Spain and in the main European and Latin American capitals.
Javier Villoria, Pedagogy Professor at the University of Granada and Washington Irving specialist, has mentioned that this book has “a prohibited touch, since it is about reading personal letters”. He also considered the book as “indispensable” for understanding the work Irving disseminated all over the world: Tales of the Alhambra.
Cartas desde la Alhambra is part of the homage to Washington Irving by the Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife on occasion of the 150 anniversary of his death. It contains an analysis with comments by the Chair Professor Antonio Garnica, as well as a graphic appendix with quite unknown engravings.