Some books age with the passing of time while others maintain their youth fresh and untarnished. This is the case with the "Tales of the Alhambra" by Washington Irving. A North American diplomat, historian and traveller, he lived for some time in the very Alhambra itself. His book, published for the first time in 1832, was immediately translated into many languages and attracted to Granada pilgrims from every latitude. In it we find a highly romantic outlook, all colour and atmosphere, together with acutele-observed, first-hand impressions full of subtlety, humour and feeling. Here on the one hand we become acquainted with the local legends and traditions which maintain today the anchantment of yesterday; on the other hand, we have superb realistic sketches of the strange world of that nineteenth-century Alhambra, so alive, so real: ordinary men and women, invalid soldiers, beggars. These may even be the most evocative pages in the book. tales, literature