MARCHING SPAIN

by V.S. Pritchett

In the spring of 1927, V.S. Pritchett set out to walk 300 miles across Spain. At that time the country was almost completely isolated: many of the people he met had never seen a foreigner before. Yet despite their poverty, they received their odd English visitor, in his outlandish tweeds, was unfailing courtesy, hospitality and curiosity. Marching Spain is a vivid portrait of a timeless Spain, about to be torn apart by civil war, and a delightful record of personal discovery.

V.S. Pritchett was born in Suffolk in 1900. Acclaimed as a master of the short story, he is also a noted critic, biographer, novelist and travel writer. Marching Spain is his first book.

Genres: Travel, Spain, Nonfiction, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Victor Sawdon Pritchett was the first of four children of Walter Sawdon Pritchett and Beatrice Helena (née Martin). His father, a London businessman in financial difficulties, had come to Ipswich to start a shop selling newspapers and stationery. The business was struggling and the couple were lodging over a toyshop at 41 St Nicholas Street where Pritchett was born on 16 December 1900. Beatrice had expected a girl, whom she planned to name after the Queen. Pritchett never liked his first name, which is why he always styled himself with his initials; even close friends would call him VSP.

Pritchett's father was a steady Christian Scientist and unsteady in all else. Walter and Beatrice had come to Ipswich to be near her sister who had married money and lived in Warrington Road. Within a year Walter was declared bankrupt, the family moved to Woodford, Essex, then to Derby, and he began selling women's clothing and accessories as a travelling salesman. Pritchett was soon sent with his brother Cyril to live with their paternal grandparents in Sedbergh, where the boys attended their first school. Walter's business failures, his casual attitude to credit, and his easy deceit obliged the family to move frequently. The family was reunited but life was always precarious; they tended to live in London suburbs with members of Beatrice's family. They returned to Ipswich in 1910, living for a year near Cauldwell Hall Road, trying to evade Walter's creditors. At this time Pritchett attended St. John's School. Subsequently Pritchett attended Alleyn's School, Dulwich, and Dulwich College but he stayed nowhere for very long. When his father went to fight in World War I, Pritchett left school. Later in the war Walter turned his hand to aircraft design, of which he knew nothing, and his later ventures included art needlework, property speculation, and faith healing.

Pritchett was a leather buyer from 1916 to 1920, when he moved to Paris, where he worked as a shop assistant. In 1923 he started writing for the Christian Science Monitor, which sent him to Ireland and Spain. From 1926 he wrote reviews for the paper and for the New Statesman, which later appointed him literary editor.

Pritchett's first book described his journey across Spain (Marching Spain 1928) and Clare Drummer (1929) was about his experiences in Ireland. Whilst in Ireland he met his first wife, Evelyn Vigors, but it was not to be a happy marriage.

Pritchett published five novels but he claimed not to enjoy their creation. His reputation was established by a collection of short stories (The Spanish Virgin and Other Stories (1932)).

In 1936 he divorced his first wife, and married Dorothy Rudge Roberts; they had two children. The marriage lasted until Pritchett's death, although they both had other relationships. His son is the journalist Oliver Pritchett and his grandson (son of Oliver) is the cartoonist Matt Pritchett.

During World War II Pritchett worked for the BBC and the Ministry of Information whilst continuing to submit a weekly essay to the New Statesman. After the war he wrote widely and he started taking teaching positions at universities in the United States: Princeton (1953), the University of California (1962), Columbia University and Smith College. He was fluent in German, Spanish, and French, and published successful biographies of Honoré de Balzac (1973), Ivan Turgenev (1977) and Anton Chekhov (1988), although he did not know Russian and had never visited the Soviet Union.

Pritchett was knighted in 1975 for his services to literature and became Companion of Honour in 1993. His awards include Heinemann Award (1969), PEN Award (1974), W.H. Smith Literary Award (1990), and Golden Pen Award (1993). He died of a stroke in London on 20 March 1997.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Pr...

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the things I loved best about this book was that it showed that the experience of peregrination doesn't really change no matter when that journey occurs. Having done a lot of long-distance walking myself, I could relate some many of Pritchett's experiences and feelings. The other was his imaginative use of language. In one passage, he talks about a "small, shrilly varnished room". And you know what he means! I didn't know much about him, but by the end, I was shocked to discover that he was not renowned as a poet, first and foremost. If you know nothing about Spain, this is not the place to begin. But if you are familiar with the place, and if you love it already, you'll enjoy a trek in the company of an erudite observer through a country whose essence, in many ways, hasn't changed in nearly a hundred years.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read 70% of this book and decided to quit. Some observations by the author were interesting, but I found myself trudging through. It became pretty boring.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sumptuous, loquaciously descriptive, personal and poignant, an auditory transcendent feast of words.