Don Fernando

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Though elsewhere in the chapter Maugham hails El Greco as great, he attributes what he perceives to be El Greco's flaws to his supposed homosexuality, saying that a homosexual is generally not capable of making great art, because he is essentially superficial, with an incomplete knowledge of the human condition. He cannot create great art--he can merely draw pretty decorations. This is why, for example, Maugham thinks El Greco's religious paintings are devoid of any true religious feeling--they are just excuses for him to draw elongated bodies, experiment with posing the hands, and paint dramatic clouds with lovely colors. The section on El Greco and Cervantes were real eye openers. He speaks a lot about how art just for admiration means nothing unless the beholder’s emotion translates into doing great things ( .... probably for others I guess ).

Ideally, we would publish every review we receive, whether positive or negative. However, we won’t display any review that includes or refers to (among other things): Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way. This work is different from his others in that it is a travelogue with history thrown in. And how. Only he could be extremely serious but conversational. This book is all about Spain and it’s cultural and social history. A real deep dive into the daily lives of kings and queens and the folks in the villages. An exposition of how their daily lives were across areas such as food literature and relationships. This has a lot of his views on art expounded in great detail. I learnt about a new genre of ‘picaresque’ novels.

Various musings from Maugham on Spain - its literature, food, religion, El Greco, and its way of life and people. On the positive side, there were glimpses of humour that did make me smile. Maugham, being born into the upper classes of Victorian England and writing in the first half of the 20th Century, exhibits the typical bluntness of the old aristocracy in saying precisely what he thinks and not particularly tempering it for anyone else's benefit. Dotted through the book are various examples of not mincing one's words, such as "The Church is uglier than any church I have ever seen" and "I cannot believe that religious art has ever sunk lower than this; and that an earthquake has not levelled it with the ground must seem to the good Catholic a very signal instance of the infinite patience of God". William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style. Not a place for a romantic dinner a deux – unless you want to keep things nice and light. But fabulous for a girls (or blokes) evening out on your way to the many bars and other places that Richmond has to offer. It’s a regular haunt. I have even been here for a post shopping lunch and an informal business lunch. The place is never empty. At the start I thought that may be this was his research or journal that had been published but Maugham makes it clear that he has an audience in mind for the book but it does also seem to be research for a work of fiction. An odd book that I would not recommend.

Don Fernando was born on 12 April, 1948 in USA, is an Actor, Director, Producer. Discover Don Fernando's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 73 years old? Popular As The longest chapter, I believe, is devoted to El Greco. Though Maugham admires El Greco's work, he also criticizes it. According to the Maugham biographies I own, the book is most famous for the El Greco chapter, chiefly because Maugham claims that he suspects El Greco, notwithstanding the fact that he had a mistress and a bastard son, was homosexual. (Maugham, despite the fact he was once married and had a bastard daughter, was himself predominantly homosexual.)

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Don Fernando," then, is a loose collection of observations on Spain in general, and especially Spain in the Golden Age. Maugham discusses food, architecture, painting, literature, the practice of writing, drama, mysticism, Catholicism, the Spanish obsession with honor, picaresque novels, and such figures as St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Teresa of Avila, Cervantes, and Lope De Vega.

It begins, living up to its title, with a memory of Don Fernando, a tavern-keeper whom Maugham had encountered in his first visit to Spain - who also had worked out a side business as a dealer of curios and antiques. One day, Fernando sold Maugham an ancient-looking manuscript that turned out to be a history of none other than Saint Ignatius of Loyola and his life and struggles and ultimate triumphs that established his reputation as a Jesuit priest across the world. Now. I have had better tapas. And I have eaten in more modern and prettier restaurants. But this place has been here for ages. And will probably still be here for many more years. Tried and trusted.An oddly rambling book which begins like a novel with a wonderfully atmospheric opening chapter regarding tavern owner, Don Fernando, selling the storyteller a book. But from then on we’re all over the place.