Farewell Spain

by Kate O'Brien

The author shares her impressions of Spain in the years before the Spanish Civil War and depicts the customs and character of the Spanish people

Genres: Spain, Travel, Irish Literature, Nonfiction, History

229 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

Kathleen Mary Louise "Kate" O'Brien, was an Irish novelist and playwright.

After the success of her play, Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books dealt with issues of female sexuality — with several exploring gay/lesbian themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury in 1974; she is buried in Faversham Cemetery.

The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings. In August 2005, Penguin reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien weekend, which takes place in Limerick, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this and started reading it about 30 years ago but it got forgotten and I only picked it up again recently. It's an interesting read, Kate O'Brien was writing this - about the Spain she had known in the 20s and 30s - as the Civil War was raging. For her Spain is the north; mainly Cantabria, Castile, the Basque Country and Galicia. She is quite rude about Toledo and doesn't like the Moorish influence on architecture. She is also rather unkind to Spanish women, she doesn't approve of their hair or make-up. But it is interesting to read from a 21st century perspective, she was able to travel around as a woman on her own or with a woman friend and meet people from different walks of life. Some issues are still very relevant - she deals with bullfighting, the 'two Spains", the Catholic Church. Interesting to compare her experience with that of Laurie Lee.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to make it clear at the outset that my five star rating for this book is my rating for myself. Others may not fall in love with this book the way I did. I think for that to be the case reader must already know something of Spain and be somewhat in love with it, the way the author clearly was, and the way I am too. Many of the feelings she expressed are mine too. Though Spain has changed in many ways in eighty years, in many ways it is the same. Spain is like a person you love, warts and all. I'm thinking here of the bullfight. Kate O'Brien grew to love the artistry, while her companion couldn't bear the cruelty. Spain is full of such contradictions, and Kate O'Brien loved that country, I think, not only in spite of, but because of the contradictions. Me too.

[Jane Massy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read while on holiday in Spain. A delightful revisit as this great Irish writer travels in memory through parts of Spain that conjure for her the wonders of this wonderful country. Written in 1936-7 and at a time of great fear and horror as the forces of nationalist hate and violence amass to slaughter their own people's sadly much resonance today. Vive l'Europe - it must never happen again.

[Carol Anne Marinaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Kate O'Brien's sense of humor and personality as she played tour guide through Spain. It was a very interesting time in the history of Spain. Having visited many of the cities she described I found her take particularly engaging.

[Eldon.shirkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate O'Brien is a terrific writer: head and shoulders over any current Irish writer and Farewell to Spain shows why. A beautiful, lyrical, effortless book. Read it and weep.

[Toby.larcom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book before a recent visit to northern Spain and loved it. I read it again when I returned and loved it even more. Why have we not heard more about this great writer?

[Danielle McClellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an at times annoying, but also amusing book. I suppose I must recognize that it was written in a very different time, but the floral extravagance of the prose and the dramatic excess of this writer can be a bit hard to take, as are her romanticized ideas about the history of Spain. (For example, her understanding of the Reconquista is shaky at best, but perhaps only reflect the unexamined beliefs of the time.) However, she was legitimately horrified and distressed: she was in Spain just as the Spanish Civil War was beginning so she can certainly be forgiven for her apocalyptic perspective.

And, just when I am about to write her off, the author surprises me with her insight, for example, she writes: "I am not a Communist, but I believe in the Spanish Republic and its constitution, and I believe in that Republic's absolute right to defend itself against military Juntas and Moors [here, she is referring to the Moroccan troops brought in to help the fascists] and all interfering doctrinaires and mercenaries And, naturally, I believe, as one must, in the Spanish Republic's right to establish itself communistically , if that is the will of the people." That is fairly impressive for an Irish Catholic writing in 1937.

And she continues to impress with her close observations and humor. So, while I found much of the memoir hard to navigate, I also uncovered a few delights.

[BMWA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very personal ode to a long disappeared Spain. Having been to northern Spain on several occasions her journey resonated with my own personal experiences of this wonderful part of the world. I found it interesting that this journey could take place while the civil war was under way, impossible to imagine that happening now and an indication of a slower pace of life. I found her writing and prose slightly formal and similar to another book from the same country and the same era, For Whom The Bell Tolls. Her encounter with the very boring Barber of Salamanca brought a smile to my face and her fluid writing of the joys of Goya and Rubens made me wish that I had met her. That we are from the same city in Ireland added poignancy to the fact that I won't.