Product Description
A reissue of a landmark poetry volume with a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner W. S. Merwin. Bilingual.

The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca has introduced generations of American readers to mesmerizing poetry since 1955. Lorca (1898-1937) is admired all over the world for the lyricism, immediacy and clarity of his poetry, as well as for his ability to encompass techniques of the symbolist movement with deeper psychological shadings. But Lorca's poems are, most of all, admired for their beauty. Undercurrents of his major influences—Spanish folk traditions from his native Andalusia and Granada, gypsy ballads, and his friends the surrealists Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel—stream throughout Lorca's work. Poets represented here as translators are as diverse as Stephen Spender, Langston Hughes, Ben Belitt, William Jay Smith, and W.S. Merwin. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

LorcaAccording To Merwin
Leaves me wanting to discover the real Lorca and
not so much of the impersonal 'scholar' poetry
picked by Mr. Merwin.If you have not seen the
movie "Little Ashes," or read "The Killing of
Federico GarciaLorca," you will understand
what I mean.Search them on Amazon.com.

Book in excellent condition
This book arrived in a timely fashion in excellent condition.I appreciate the high-quality service.

The Best Introduction to Lorca
I have the Collected Poems of Lorca but I still return to this beautiful, compact volume time and time again. It is not that the Collected Poems dissatisfy me, no... I simply find most of my favourite poems in the Selected Poems.

It is in my opinion the best introduction to Federico Garcia Lorca's poetry. Here one can find 'The Faithless Wife', just as famous as Neruda's 'Tonight I Write the Saddest Lines' as well handsome selections from the Divan, Canciones, Romancero Gitano and his other works. I feel it was my first reading of 'The Faithless Wife' that inspired my interest in Lorca's poetry. It is spare, solemn, a poem thirsting for love, truth and sex.

W.S. Merwin's introduction and Lorca's brother, Francisco provide some background to the poet's life. The collection is 'collectively' translated by a sound handful of prominent poets and scholars: Ben Belitt, Rolfe Humphries, Langston Hughes, Stephen Spender, Edwin Honig to name just a few. I often find collective translations more satisfying as if the poet's voice needed an assembly of talented, careful scholars to piece together the great dynamic of the artist. This small book becomes a beautiful mosaic in their hands.

Highly recommended, easy to read, easy to approach but from there, you'll want to explore more of Lorca and of course, the next big step is the Collected Poems. A great beginning.

Good, loud poems
My husband used to read me this book when I was pregnant with my only child. The sound of the poems made her kick. Maybe the poems, but probably it was just the way he read them--in spanish--louder than he ever said anything. My husband never yelled, even when he was angry he just stayed by himself a bit, but he really used to get into these poems. From his childhood, I guess. He tried to translate them himself, but he wasn't very good at it. He would probably say these aren't very good either, no translation is your own after all, but I don't speak spanish, and to me these are close to the way he used to make me feel when he read them. Very lovely, and a little alarming.

I tried reading them to my daughter--she's having a baby in the summer--but it didn't really make anyone feel alarmed. I guess I need to learn to develop my own versions.

A must have
This is the book that everyone who loves FGL must have. I even started to learn it in spanish. ... Read more

Product Description
This collection brings together new original English-language translations of frederico Garcia Lorca's so-called "impossible" plays, as well as new translations of thirteen of his most recognized poems from his Poet in new York cycle. Along with translations are essays on Lorca's work by some of his most prominent Lorca scholars currently working today, and cover art and dramaturgical notes by esteemed Catalan painter, scenic designer, and filmmaker Frederic Amat. This volume seeks to recontextualize Lorca's experimental work for a new audience now that 100 years have passed since the poet's birth, and allows directors, actors, and academics to rediscover the lesser-known plays of Lorca's commedia-influenced period as as reaquaint themselves with his little-performed classic As Five Years Pass. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Three Key Plays
This edition has Lorca's three most famous plays:Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba. There is some sense in putting them together, though they are not consecutive. All are relatively later plays, Blood sometimes called his first major work and The House being his last completed play and widely acknowledged masterpiece. Perhaps more importantly, all have similar settings and themes; they are often considered a trilogy dealing with early nineteenth-century rural Spain. The plays focus on central Lorca concerns like desire, repression, ritual, tradition and authority vs. individualism, etc. This gives continuity, as does the tragic link indicated in the title.

The themes are increasingly dramatized through women. This would have been notable anywhere in the 1930s but is even more remarkable in coming from a heavily Catholic country suffering conservative backlash. Mores were stringent, having a profound cultural effect and intensely affecting individuals; transgressors were heavily punished or, as in the case of Lorca himself, even killed. Lorca's sympathy with women's lot is highly notable, and it is hard to deny a strong connection between it and his own tortured existence as a homosexual in a time and place where he could not live openly with impunity. One can legitimately see these works as similar to Henrik Ibsen's famous "problem plays" - dramatizations of contemporary social problems. Lorca bravely calls into question many traditional Spanish and Catholic beliefs, showing their limitations and the tragic effects that sometimes result.

However, there is more to them. Lorca's language has a lyricism and sophistication rarely seen in drama since Ibsen led the switch to prose. He was of course primarily a poet and still mostly known for poetry; we can see a successful melding of drama in the strictest sense with poetry. Some will inevitably say this comes at the expense of other modern drama qualities, primarily realism, and it is certainly true that they are deemphasized. This was of course conscious and essentially a matter of taste. Those who dislike it will almost certainly be averse to Lorca's drama; others may lionize it. I am essentially in-between, unable to see how so many see these works as truly great drama but easily recognizing how far they are above midrange - quite far in the case of The House of Bernarda Alba.

More important in any case are universal themes that move the plays beyond time and place. Lorca's work has an all-powerful earthiness focusing on primitive emotions like lust, rage, and despair, making his work accessible to all even at its most arcane. His local focus is intense, and it is near-impossible to avoid biographical readings with an author so ambiguously legendary, but some of his issues are central to the human condition. Also, though characterization was not his forte, his portrayals were heavily, often intensely dramatic, making it easier to identify with what were quite radical concepts. He was of course an artist - and, indeed, a man - well ahead of his time, as reading these very modern works over seventy years later attests. In this way, at least, his writing is easier to appreciate as time passes.

There are substantial differences between the three plays, including quality. With a near-elementary plot but stunningly poetic language, Blood Wedding is at once the simplest and most complex. The simple tale is as old as literature - probably as old as humanity -, and it is hard for one to care much about it on its own terms. There is indeed a noticeable Greek tragedy influence in presentation - i.e., violence being offstage - as well as plot, though Lorca is as ever strongly rooted in Spanish culture. However, the play has the least conventional presentation, making it intriguing. It is deliberately the least realistic; a near-surreal air pervades, and there is relatively little prose dialogue. More importantly, it is the most symbolic; tropes and figures do not so much accentuate as become essential to the plot. Blood requires close attention to appreciate, making its being first in the collection somewhat unfortunate, as it is not the easiest introduction. Thankfully, the lyrical beauty may pull some readers in, leading them to the stronger and more enjoyable plays.

Yerma has a more original focus, centering on Lorca's time and place with significant universal overtones - the tragedy that results when women are unable to have children in a culture leaving them little else. The play is unsurprisingly a feminist favorite, but anyone with empathy for people in sad situations will see much pathos. Yerma vividly dramatizes the repression of women in early twentieth-century rural Spain, throwing their trials and travails into sharp relief against the general culture. We quickly see how unjust it was, but Lorca knows better than to offer a simple solution, instead showing the tragedy that comes from this very lack. However, reducing the play to didactic status does it something of a disservice, as its empathy for women is sadly not universal. Perhaps more importantly, Yerma is a highly memorable character who earns our sympathy despite carrying her obsession to what can only be called psychosis and committing an unjustifiable act. Dramatically, Yerma is more original than Blood Wedding, shedding the Greek tragedy influence for an intense focus on a single theme and character. Yerma is onstage nearly the whole time and always the focus. Her part is one of modern theater's most difficult; only a tremendous actor could do it convincingly. We can see a definite growth from Blood to Yerma, with Lorca pushing modern theater's boundaries in more than one way.

The House of Bernarda Alba is by far the strongest play - probably the twentieth century's greatest Spanish drama and one of the ten or twenty greatest of the century overall. Lorca unfortunately did not live to complete his next play, but this is in many ways his drama's culmination, the masterwork he had been working for his whole career. He has skillfully pared back poetic imagery to the point where The House strongly resembles most modern prose drama, but it is not a step back. The occasional lyricism is so well-done and appropriate that, if anything, this is the seamless welding he had been working for from the start. He has also pared back elsewhere; the play is a masterpiece of concision in several ways. Just as Yerma followed naturally from Blood Wedding in focusing near-exhaustively on a single female character, here all characters are female. One male is very important to the plot but never appears - a decision that works better than the more obvious route could have. Many women's/feminist issues again inevitably arise, but this has far wider appeal. Issues of family, class, marriage, etc. resonate powerfully across cultures and time, raising Lorca above the "Spanish" category in which it is often so easy to put him. The plot is again nothing revolutionary, but execution is masterful. Various emotions reach almost unbearable peaks throughout, and Lorca's deft hand with timing and suspense is at full throttle. Symbolism has also been pared down, at least as essential to the plot as ever but far more subtle. It is skillfully embedded into the play's very fabric rather than being thrust forward as in Blood, making a work that, like all great works, can be appreciated on several levels.

This brings up the main unavoidable crux in reading Lorca - he is not an easy read. Even those eager to enjoy and/or appreciate him may well have significant difficulty. Matters of taste aside, he uses symbolism so heavily that anyone not paying close attention will miss essential points - even basic plot elements. This and frequent lyrical deployment set him apart from nearly all modern drama; those who do not know what to expect may be taken by inauspicious surprise. These are problems even for those who read Lorca in Spanish, but translation of course compounds them. Since Lorca works his vast knowledge of Spanish culture into his work so thoroughly, those unfamiliar with it will miss much - not only symbolism but even basic plot points. Finally, as one might expect from a writer who was a director and actor as well as writer, Lorca put more emphasis on physical elements than the vast majority of playwrights. These are nearly impossible to reproduce on paper, and he indeed does not even try; stage directions are minimal, and almost no description is given. This was of course not a problem when he was alive, for he could add them himself in production, but readers are now left significantly hanging. There is no solution other than seeing the plays performed, and those who wish only to read him - or are unable to attend a play - must put up with the deficiency. It fortunately is not fatal; there is still much to enjoy and appreciate, even if we are all too aware that we are missing something.

The above comments apply to the plays generally, regardless of translation. Without going into various translations' merits, I must point out that this edition has an introduction by Lorca's brother Francisco. Some other editions have this, and I urge anyone comparing versions to get one with this regardless of the translation. No one should pay the ultra high prices some of these are listed at, but it is more than worth seeking out. Long and fascinating, it spills over with the kind of detail only an intimate could give. Francisco proves a capable writer, giving at least as good a critical introduction as any professional critic could have, but his personal observations are even more valuable. We learn much about Lorca the writer, including many insights a critic could never have, and quite a bit about Lorca the man. The most important point may be that, as Francisco emphasizes again and again, the two roles were essentially inseparable in a manner rarely seen in artists and worked off each other in ways often rather different from what one would expect. The plays give a significant peek into his beliefs and personality and vice versa, letting us appreciate Lorca in a manner that goes some way toward correcting for what we inevitably miss by reading him in translation.

Lorca's tragedies give us a view of early 1900's Spain
As a huge 'fan' of Lorca's poetry, I hadn't realized he had written plays. I pounced on this book when I saw it at a used book sale and ran home to read the three plays: Blood Wedding, Yerma, and The House of Bernarda Alba. The plays were written in the last five years of Lorca's life and reflect his roots in Spain and Spanish drama. The three plays deal with a changing landscape--that of a person's natural inclination towards passion and impulse versus a rigid moral code that those who lived in rural Spain were expected to follow.

The three plays have women as their major characters and each has a rigid, unbending character and others that find they cannot always live up to the expectations. Lorca in all three plays combines language and poetry to express a woman's frustration with her place in society and her acceptance or non-acceptance of the same. My favorite play was the House of Bernarda Alba. It is a pretty raw look at Bernarda who values social position above the happiness of her daughters. The plays are tragedies and the final acts are very powerful.

Powerful; 4.5 Stars
The basic theme of these powerful and relatively short plays is repression of passion.Women are the major characters and the constricted roles of women in rural Spanish society are focus of these plays.In each work, traditional social and family mores result in repressed passion, considerable unhappiness, and an eventual violent outcome.The construction of these plays is particularly interesting. These plays, particularly Blood Wedding and Yerma, deliberately avoid naturalistic staging.Garcia Lorca used stylized construction, poetic language, and some very unconventional stage effects, particularly in Blood Wedding and Yerma.The goal appears to have been to convey a kind of mythic effect in the setting of traditional Spanish rural society.The style and construction are reminiscent of, though considerably more successful than, Auden's early dramatic work.All these plays are very effective when read.I found Yerma the most affecting, though I suspect only a very talented actress could carry off this role.

Great Read
I have read Blood Wedding and i think that this translation was extremely good. Although the writing was a bit detached, i believe that it just needs a bit more effort to understand the language and the story. It was a powerful play, though, and i recommend it to all.

Great Work
Lorca does not disappoint. The translation is good. Blood Wedding is highly recommended for performance. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

passionate and dream-like
Another author chosen for our rural writers' group. I felt it could inspire the young folks who are transfixed by vampires and darkness. This is definitely NOT that, but rather is a more mature expression that arises out of the angst brought on by some of the same issues, historical and personal, that these youngsters experience. My all-time favorite poet.

Of the best selections of Lorca's poems
This series of lyrical poems are full of imagination, sensitivity and pictures, though Lorca's loneliness and depression comes through as well:

"Narciso.
Mi dolor.
Y mi dolor mismo."

This is not Lorca!
I have read many different books of Lorca's poetry, and I think thetranslation for this book is really poor. It is not keeping with Lorca's real poetry. Try his collected poems or A Season in Granada. Those truly keep with the beauty of his writing. Skip this book!

More Duende, Please
If you love Lorca, you'll appreciate this book. Lorca is the master of Duende, but he does it in such an artful way that you don't feel all gloomy. In fact, by underscoring the shadow of death, Lorca shows us the beauty in life. If you read this book, you're sure to enjoy the lyrical mastery of one of Spain's greatest poets.

wonderfully lyrical and romantic
These wonderfully lyrical and romantic poems span from 1921 to 1936, the year of his untimely execution. This edition include both the original Spanish and English translations (including a translation by Langston Hughes).

I particular like some of the sounds "Poem of the Saeta" "They come from remote regions of sorrow". His trip to New York, produced the notable "King of Harlem" and "Ode to Walt Whitman". The final series of poems on "Gacela of .." and "Casida of the .." only hint at the themes he may have developed later in his life.
... Read more

Product Description
In his four last plays (Blood Wedding, Yerma, The House of Bernarda Alba, Dona Rosita the Spinster) Federico García Lorca offered his disturbed and disturbing personal vision to Spanish audiences of the 1930s---unready, as he thought them, for the sexual frankness and surreal expression of his more experimental work. The authentic sense of danger of Lorca's theatre is finely conveyed here in John Edmunds's fluent and rhythmic new translations that lend themselves admirably to performance. ... Read more

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"Let us agree," Federico García Lorca wrote, "that one of man’s most beautiful postures is that of St. Sebastian."

"In my ‘Saint Sebastian’ I remember you," Salvador Dalí replied to Lorca, referring to an essay he had just written, "and sometime I think he is you."

This lively, often funny exchange offers an unforgettable look at the complex relations between two renowned, highly influential 20th-century artists. Sebastian’s Arrows presents a vibrant collection of their letters, lectures, and mementos, on the centennial of Dalí’s birth.

Written between 1925 and 1936, letters and lectures bring to life a passionate friendship, a thoughtful dialogue on aesthetics, and the constant interaction of poetry and painting. From their student days in the Residencia de Estudiantes, Madrid, where the two waged war on cultural "putrefaction" and joked about the sacred cows of Spanish art,Dalí and García Lorca shared their thoughts on creation, modernity, and the meaning of their own art. In poetic skirmishes, they sharpened and shaped each others’ work. As Lorca defended his verses of absence and elegy and his love of tradition, Dalí argued for "Clarity" and "Holy Objectivity" and, later, for the poetics of collage and the unsettling logic of Surrealism.

Christopher Maurer’s helpful introduction and selection of images and texts (including a lecture previously unavailable in English) offer insight into the lives and works of two iconic artists. It was a "tragic, passionate relationship," Dalí once wrote; a friendship struck by the arrows of Saint Sebastian. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

From CHOICE
"This volume gathers an assortment of letters, works, illustrations, and photographs--some previously unpublished. In his superb introduction, Maurer (Spanish, Boston Univ.) re-creates and probes this intense friendship, bringing the reader into the wondrous and exciting world of two extraordinary young men. Written between 1925 and 1936, the letters offer intimate glimpses of this friendship and of the artistic insights of two of the dominant artistic figures of the past century. [...] Thoughtfully and sensitively conceived, this is an intellectually sound and compelling volume." F. Colecchia, CHOICE 9/05
... Read more

Product Description
En la rígida España de principios de siglo, un pueblo se prepara para una gran fiesta. Pero las pasiones ocultas y la sangre que hierve bajo las pieles ardientes tuercen el rumbo de la historia. La boda tan esperada resulta en duelo, la luna se tiñe de rojo. Y la muerte, el sino trágico, se cierne sobre los actores del drama, haciendo de "Bodas de sangre" un clásico del teatro español. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

bodas de sangre
tremenda porqueria de libro,e leido muchas novelas y esta es la peor de todas,fue una perdida de tiempo y dinero.

---Bodas de sangre.--- Federico Garcia Lorca.
Sinceramente recomiendo este libro, a todos aquellos que sean amantes de la literatura llena de sentimientos y no les importe derramar algunas lagrimas. ... Read more

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collected works, Spain, tr Edwin Honig ... Read more

Product Description
La figura de Federico Garcia Lorca abarca, tanto en Espana como en el exterior, mucho mas que su literatura. Su poesia, traducida a infinidad de lenguas, recorre paisajes, hurga en tradiciones y denuncia injusticias con la maestria de quien ha sabido utilizar la pluma como pocos, y sus libros continuan leyendose sin atender al paso del tiempo ni a las arbitrariedades de la moda. En este libro, el lector podra acercarse al joven Lorca, en cuya poesia germinan ya las grandes obras que lo erigieron en un maestro indiscutible, como el Libro de poemas , las Canciones, el Juego y teoria del duende o las Suites. La edicion y los prologos, a cargo de Miguel Garcia-Posada, otorgan al lector las herramientas necesarias para comprender y contextualizar al personaje, para acercarse a la complejidad de su obra y para disfrutar, a lo largo de los siete volumenes que componen esta Biblioteca Federico Garcia Lorca, de uno de los autores espanoles mas relevantes del siglo XX. ... Read more

Product Description
In "The House of Bernarda Alba", a tyrannical matriarch rules over her house and five daughters, cruelly crushing their hopes and needs. The other plays here also portray female characters whose desires are tragically and violently frustrated: a woman's longing for a child in "Yerma", and a bride's yearning for her lover in "Blood Wedding". All appeal for freedom and sexual and social equality, and are also passionate defences of the imagination: in Christopher Maurer's words, 'poetic drama unsurpassed by any writer of our time'. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Lyrical, but not captivating
To my understanding, the three tragedies included in this volume are considered to be amongst the author's most well-known plays.Each play is strongly influenced by his primary literary outlet (poetry) and exhibits a lyricism and scripted efficiency that is rarely exhibited in modern theatrical works.His use of symbolism is also well-documented is attributable, no doubt, to his involvement in the Spanish Avant-Garde movement in the 1920's and 30's.With that being said, two of the three are less than impressive upon a first reading which leads me to believe that either a) they require multiple readings and instruction to be fully appreciated, or b) the plays' critical acclaim is related more to the act of critical acclamation than actual content.The introduction by Lorca's brother attempts to make a case for the former and provides a valuable postscript to the three plays (assuming you read it after the plays, as opposed to before).

* Blood Wedding
A simple story of forbidden love and deadly revenge.Perhaps it is better in its original language, but the story is nowhere near as compelling as other love-or-death dramas in my opinion.Songs and choruses provide thematic direction in most instances and remind me of Greek dramas without the mythological background which would otherwise ease character development.The emotional impact is stunted somewhat by the groom's lack of clear interest in his bride other than honor.

* Yerma
Poetry and lyricism take center stage here more so than the other two dramas.However, it is difficult to emotionally connect with the protagonist, especially the perversion of her matronly desire into the abrupt murder of her husband.It is almost as if the play requires not a suspension of disbelief, but a willing acceptance of a dramatic conclusion withouth knowing anything about any character other than Yerma.It feels more like an experiment than a timeless piece of literature.

* The House of Bernarda Alba
This is the best-constructed of the three in terms of character and plot development.The first act seems much more immediate than anything in the other two plays and the pacing makes it easy to understand the conflict between the oppressive tradition required by the mother and the cloistered daughter's desire to choose and act for themselves.Here we see the mother's oppression translating into secrecy and conspiracy amongst the daughters, similar to the behavior of a populace during dictatorial regimes.In such a case, it is easy to see that the end of repression is a violent transition, even if directed inwardly.

My presumption is that this is required reading for students of theatre and Spanish literature.However, the casual reader will probably be better served to read `Bernarda' and skip the other two.

Verde Que Te Quiero Verde
Here is one of Federico Garcia-Lorca's most famous poems, in Spanish.It will give you a taste of what it is like to read him in English or Spanish:

Verde que te quiero verde*
por F. García Lorca * Friday October 24, 2003 at 09:46 PM

Romance sonámbulo*

Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas le están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.
*
Verde que te quiero verde.
Grandes estrellas de escarcha,
vienen con el pez de sombra
que abre el camino del alba.
La higuera frota su viento
con la lija de sus ramas,
y el monte, gato garduño,
eriza sus pitas agrias.
¿Pero quién vendrá? ¿Y por dónde...?
Ella sigue en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
soñando en la mar amarga.
*
Compadre, quiero cambiar
mi caballo por su casa,
mi montura por su espejo,
mi cuchillo por su manta.
Compadre, vengo sangrando,
desde los montes de Cabra.
Si yo pudiera, mocito,
ese trato se cerraba.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
Compadre, quiero morir
decentemente en mi cama.
De acero, si puede ser,
con las sábanas de holanda.
¿No ves la herida que tengo
desde el pecho a la garganta?
Trescientas rosas morenas
lleva tu pechera blanca.
Tu sangre rezuma y huele
alrededor de tu faja.
Pero yo ya no soy yo,
ni mi casa es ya mi casa.
Dejadme subir al menos
hasta las altas barandas,
dejadme subir, dejadme,
hasta las verdes barandas.
Barandales de la luna
por donde retumba el agua.
*
Ya suben los dos compadres
hacia las altas barandas.
Dejando un rastro de sangre.
Dejando un rastro de lágrimas.
Temblaban en los tejados
farolillos de hojalata.
Mil panderos de cristal,
herían la madrugada.
*
Verde que te quiero verde,
verde viento, verdes ramas.
Los dos compadres subieron.
El largo viento, dejaba
en la boca un raro gusto
de hiel, de menta y de albahaca.
¡Compadre! ¿Dónde está, dime?
¿Dónde está mi niña amarga?
¡Cuántas veces te esperó!
¡Cuántas veces te esperara,
cara fresca, negro pelo,
en esta verde baranda!
*
Sobre el rostro del aljibe
se mecía la gitana.
Verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Un carámbano de luna
la sostiene sobre el agua.
La noche su puso íntima

como una pequeña plaza.
Guardias civiles borrachos,
en la puerta golpeaban.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar.
Y el caballo en la montaña

Federico Garcia Lorca*

Lyrical, Passionate, Elemental
I saw BLOOD WEDDING and THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA on television during the '50s or '60s.I loved them so much, I got the books out of the library read and re-read them during high school.

Garcia Lorca is a master of language and poetry.His plays and poems are romantic, lyrical, and passionate.

THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA, BLOOD WEDDING, AND YERMA center on the urgent sexuality of women and the rage and pain that come when that sexuality is denied or thwarted.Lorca's plays are not pornographic or sexually explicit--rather they deal with drives, yearnings, impulses that inevitably flower, and how different characters in the play are affected by social pressures that allow--or restrain--her from expressing these ancient needs.

One reviewer included a quote in his review, and so will I--this poem will perhaps give the reader a sense of his style:

The Gypsy and the Wind

Playing her parchment moon
Precosia comes
along a watery path of laurels and crystal lights.
The starless silence, fleeing
from her rhythmic tambourine,
falls where the sea whips and sings,
his night filled with silvery swarms.
High atop the mountain peaks
the sentinels are weeping;
they guard the tall white towers
of the English consulate.
And gypsies of the water
for their pleasure erect
little castles of conch shells
and arbors of greening pine.

Playing her parchment moon
Precosia comes.
The wind sees her and rises,
the wind that never slumbers.
Naked Saint Christopher swells,
watching the girl as he plays
with tongues of celestial bells
on an invisible bagpipe.

Gypsy, let me lift your skirt
and have a look at you.
Open in my ancient fingers
the blue rose of your womb.

Precosia throws the tambourine
and runs away in terror.
But the virile wind pursues her
with his breathingand burning sword.

The sea darkens and roars,
while the olive trees turn pale.
The flutes of darkness sound,
and a muted gong of the snow.

Precosia, run, Precosia!
Or the green wind will catch you!
Precosia, run, Precosia!
And look how fast he comes!
A satyr of low-born stars
with their long and glistening tongues.

Precosia, filled with fear,
now makes her way to that house
beyond the tall green pines
where the English consul lives.

Alarmed by the anguished cries,
three riflemen come running,
their black capes tightly drawn,
and berets down over their brow.

The Englishman gives the gypsy
a glass of tepid milk
and a shot of Holland gin
which Precosia does not drink.

And while she tells them, weeping,
of her strange adventure,
the wind furiously gnashes
against the slate roof tiles.

Now imagine these words in Spanish!

read and buy this book!!
garcia lorca is simply a person who must be read.

And where has gone the Argentine "Valsa de Requerda??"" Where?

Spain not Peru
The trilogy by FGL, Yerma, Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba is set in Spain not Peru.They are an excellent portrayal of life in rural Spain during those times.A must read for anyone, but especially those who are studying Spanish literature.Allthough most widely known as a poet, FGL displays his talent for drama with these plays. ... Read more

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La casa de Bernarda Alba (The House of Bernarda Alba) was one of the last plays to be written by Lorca, shortly before he was executed by the Franco regime at the age of 38, in 1936. It was not performed until 1945 several years after his death. Along with Blood Wedding and Yerma it forms Lorca's Rural Trilogy. The play is based around five daughters who live with their fearsome and tyrannical mother. The daughters have been kept sheltered from the opposite sex, but the arrival of a suitor after their father's death catapults the family into a downward spiral of sexual jealousy and death. The play explores themes of sexual oppression, passion, and conformity, and examines women's lives in Spain at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Bernarda's cruel tyranny over her daughters foreshadows the stifling nature of Franco's fascist regime, which was to arrive just a few weeks after Lorca finished writing his play. The introduction by Jonathan Thacker addresses the main issues of the play and the issues involved in translating it. ... Read more

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Lorca's Masterpiece
The House of Bernarda Alba is by far Lorca's strongest play - probably the twentieth century's greatest Spanish drama and one of the ten or twenty greatest of the century overall. Lorca unfortunately did not live to complete his next play, but this is in many ways his drama's culmination, the masterwork he had been working for his whole career. He has skillfully pared back poetic imagery to the point where The House strongly resembles most modern prose drama, but it is not a step back. The occasional lyricism is so well-done and appropriate that, if anything, this is the seamless welding he had been working for from the start. He has also pared back elsewhere; the play is a masterpiece of concision in several ways. Just as Yerma followed naturally from Blood Wedding in focusing near-exhaustively on a single female character, here all characters are female. One male is very important to the plot but never appears - a decision that works better than the more obvious route could have. Many women's/feminist issues again inevitably arise, but this has far wider appeal. Issues of family, class, marriage, etc. resonate powerfully across cultures and time, raising Lorca above the "Spanish" category in which it is often so easy to put him. The plot is again nothing revolutionary, but execution is masterful. Various emotions reach almost unbearable peaks throughout, and Lorca's deft hand with timing and suspense is at full throttle. Symbolism has also been pared down, at least as essential to the plot as ever but far more subtle. It is skillfully embedded into the play's very fabric rather than being thrust forward as in Blood, making a work that, like all great works, can be appreciated on several levels.

This brings up the main unavoidable crux in reading Lorca - he is not an easy read. Even those eager to enjoy and/or appreciate him may well have significant difficulty. Matters of taste aside, he uses symbolism so heavily that anyone not paying close attention will miss essential points - even basic plot elements. This and frequent lyrical deployment set him apart from nearly all modern drama; those who do not know what to expect may be taken by inauspicious surprise. These are problems even for those who read Lorca in Spanish, but translation of course compounds them. Since Lorca works his vast knowledge of Spanish culture into his work so thoroughly, those unfamiliar with it will miss much - not only symbolism but even basic plot points. Finally, as one might expect from a writer who was a director and actor as well as writer, Lorca put more emphasis on physical elements than the vast majority of playwrights. These are nearly impossible to reproduce on paper, and he indeed does not even try; stage directions are minimal, and almost no description is given. This was of course not a problem when he was alive, for he could add them himself in production, but readers are now left significantly hanging. There is no solution other than seeing the plays performed, and those who wish only to read him - or are unable to attend a play - must put up with the deficiency. It fortunately is not fatal; there is still much to enjoy and appreciate, even if we are all too aware that we are missing something.

Review of Book on Spanish Novel (Translated)
Provided me with the help I needed in order to understand some of the archaic language used during that period.

house of bernarda alba
I have played Poncia in this play and I really enjoyed it.We only did a short part out of it but I wanted to do more.I recommend reading this book but if you can perform it! ... Read more

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This is a Special order item, no returns ... Read more

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Passionate Wedding
Blood Wedding by Lorca is an excellent book, full of excellent imagery and real images that leap out at you. The storyline holds your attention and keeps it till you finish it. The story is told in a beautiful, moving way and haunts you long after you finish reading the book. ... Read more

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At dawn on the 19th of August 1936 Spaniards murdered the man who most profoundly embodied the poetic spirit of their country. Federico Garcia Lorca was the victim of the passions that arose in Spain as the Church, the military and the bourgeoisie embarked on their reckless and brutal repression of "undesirables". For Lorca was not a political man; he embraced Spain - from its struggling leftist movement to its most conservative traditions - with a love that transcended politics. His "crime" was his antipathy to pomposity, conformity and intolerance. For years the Spanish government suppressed the truth about Lorca's death. In this recreation of the assassination, Ian Gibson redresses the wrong. Based on information only recently made available, this is an illumination not only of the death of a great poet, but of the atmosphere of Civil War Spain that allowed it to happen. ... Read more

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Back in print to coincide with the release of the upcoming motion picture Death in Granada on the life of Lorca, this "monumental biography" (New York Times) goes to the heart of his explosive genius. When, at the age of 38, Federico Garcia Lorca was executed by anti-republican rebels during the Spanish Civil War, he was already one of the world's most celebrated poets and playwrights. ... Read more

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The best biography of a Spanish poet
Federico Garcia Lorca is one of the best poets in history of Spanish literature. In a country where is very difficult to find a tradition ofinvestigations about our recently literature, Ian Gibson's book is a masterpiece.

Incredibly well researched.
One of the best biographies I've read. This book is a well written account based on much research that is finely pieced together.

Gibson tells you about Lorca and all that surrounded him.
Lorca's life, and fate, other than some superficial items, were for the most part hidden from public awareness for many decades. He was in many ways a victim, but mostly from politicians, because they killed him.

Theexcesses of the Reds were countered by the excesses of the Blues(phalangists, rightists, fascists) in a dictatorship that outdid themurders of all predecessors. Politicians sometimes destroy something inorder to "save" it. His threat was his speech, and 1998, the yearof his centennial, the centennial of Spain's great gift to us for producingso many super-writers ("the generation of 98"), was the year inwhich we were reminded that the struggle against oppression never ends.

Gibson tells us the story of Lorca but not only about him. If hementions Granada, Andalucia, the Gypsies, the Moors, Falla, the SpanishCivil War, etc, he will ALSO tell you about that! In this book you willgrasp the meaning of surrealism, its evolution, Lorca's surrealism, andparticularly the surrealism of Dali and Buñuel.

This book is a must forthe literary avid, the poetry fan, the history bum, the political student,and importantly, for those of us that will benefit from learning that whathappened in Spain may also happen in our own countries.

a complete view of Garcia Lorca's life
I am an architecture student at Tulane University, and I am very interested in the way Garcia Lorca percieved and described the notion of place and space. Most likely I willdo my Architecture Thesis about Garcia Lorca and his sensibility and perceptions on events,and place and Iann Gibson's book, "Federico Garcia Lorca: A Life", is the first biography about Lorca that I have read, and I find it very comprehensive and acsessible. I also believe that the translation to English is done with great sensibility. In addition I would like to know if there are other books about Lorca that are more related to my topic? ... Read more

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Ashbery was right. . .
John Ashbery blurbs this translation of Poet in New York with, "Pablo Medina and Mark Statman have produced the definitive version of Lorca's masterpiece, in language that is as alive and molten today as was the original in 1930." I couldn't agree more, and happen to think that quote says it all. This translation is true to the Spanish, translated pretty much literally, while still maintaining the poetics, stylings, and spirit of Lorca. If you have to read the poems in English, highly recommend this translation. There's really nothing more to be said.

Lorca
This is a great book with very good translations of Lorca's most surreal poetry. I would recommend it to anyone.

An excellent and thrilling new translation.
Federico Garcia Lorca arrived in New York just in time to witness the chaos created by the 1929 stock market crash. Lorca was totally unprepared for what he found in New York, as Pablo Medina and Mark Statman point out in their excellent and thrilling new translation of "Poet in New York": "Coming to rid himself of grief, he encounters an abundance of grief; coming to witness the power of human endeavor, he finds inhumanity, tragedy, failure."

From this extreme culture shock poured the phantasmagoric poems of "Poet in New York," in this bilingual edition featuring both Lorca's originals and Medina and Statman's fine, faithful, idiomatic translations. This was the first translation of "Poet in New York" to be done after the tragedy of 9/11, published early in 2008; what Medina and Statman couldn't foresee, however, was how the current Wall Street meltdown--the worst since 1929--would further underline the pertinence and urgency of Lorca's apocalyptic vision of the city. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers and WaMu, these lines from "Dance of Death" sound as if Lorca could have written them for a CNN report:

In time the cobra will hiss in the final floors,
the nettles shake patios and porches,
the Market become a pyramid of moss,
the reeds follow the rifles,
and soon, very soon.
Oh, Wall Street!
... Read more

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Bodas de sangre es una tragedia en verso del escritor español Federico García Lorca escrita en 1931. Se estrenó el 8 de marzo de 1933 en el Teatro Infanta Beatriz de Madrid y fue llevada al cine por Carlos Saura en 1981.

Es una producción poética y teatral que se centra en el análisis de un sentimiento trágico. Desde la vida y la muerte, a lo antiguo y lo moderno, en la manera de ver la tragedia. Todo ello enmarcado en un paisaje andaluz trágico y universal.

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