A Visit to Don Otavio - Softcover

Bedford, Sybille

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0907871879 ISBN 13: 9780907871873

Publisher: Eland Publishing Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

Mexico, through the eyes of Sybille Bedford is a country of passion and paradox: arid desert and shrieking jungle, harsh sun and deep shadow, violence and sentimentality. In her frank descriptions of the horrors of travel - through bug-infested jungle, trapped in a broiling stationary train, or in a bus with a dead fish slapping against her face - she gains our trust. But it is the charmed world of Don Otavio which steals our imagination. He is, she says, "one of the kindest men I ever met". She stays in his crumbling ancestral mansion, living a life of provincial ease and observing with glee the intense life of a Mexican neighbourhood.

About this title

Review:

A classic. From the first page there is no doubt this journey to Mexico will be rewarding and exciting. -- The Evening News

A work which invokes that disturbing and paradoxical country as vividly as anything by D H Lawrence... A wonderful book. -- Bruce Chatwin

An absolutely first class writer at the top of her powers. -- The Literary Review

An extremely enjoyable, often hilarious, occasionally lyrical and surprisingly relevant account of Ms Bedford's travels through Mexico in the 1950's -- The Rough Guide to Mexico

Perceptive, lively, aware of the significance of trifles, and a fine writer. -- The Times

From the Publisher:

Classic travel account republished
One of the Picador Travel Classic series, republished in a hardback collector's edition, A Visit to Don Otavio tells of a journey that begins on Grand Central Station and continues to Mexico, with its pleasures and horrors frankly retold. The eponymous host is a bankrupt squire still inhabiting his lakeside house with seventeen servants to wait on him.

About this edition

• Publisher: Eland Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0907871879
• ISBN 13: 9780907871873
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320