Enchanted by the landscape and people of Spain, Maugham had long resolved to write a picaresque novel about the country. Instead, he wrote a living commentary assessing a great people in their greatest hour. DON FERNANDO, considered by Graham Greene to be Maugham's best work, is a paean to Spain's golden age of enormous creative energy. Beginning with the vivid tale of Loyola's life and conversion, it discusses the writings of St Teresa and the painting of El Greco, and comment with sagacity and wit on such illustrious figures as Cervantes, Luis de Lyon, Lope de Vega, Velasquez and the creator of Don Juan. DON FERNANDO is full of happy surprises, curious facts and stimulating opinions that reflect Maugham's lifelong love and admiration for Spanish culture and civilisation.
--This text refers to the
Kindle Edition
edition.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A journey worth making,
By A Customer
This review is from: Don Fernando: Or, Variations on Some Spanish Themes (The Works of W. Somerset Maugham) (Hardcover)
This book, which I have burst upon quite unexpectedly, offered me a wealth of peaceful meditation and subtle joy. Maugham elaborates on his "spanish themes" with a casualness that easily wins the beholder. It can be called in some ways a travel book, recalling the chapters in which he more than alludes to the Spanish way of living, i.e. their eating habits, the look and feel of their cities and so on. Yet, Maugham also shares with his reader the fruits of his long research he conducted on Spaniards of the Golden Age. What I find the most pleasurable in these memoirs is the way Maugham reveals the fact behind the fiction regarding many issues, to name a few; Spanish literature and drama of the Golden Ages, the life and days (and the religious ferver, which he finds nonexistent of) El Greco. At any rate, this book is excellent reading, and reveals between the lines, the sometimes ironic, but never cynical humor of the artist.
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