A Visit to Don Otavio (Picador Travel Classics, 16)

by B R U C E C H A T W I N (Introduction), SybilleBedford (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1997

  $9.12

  The tale begins at Grand Central Station with an impetuous decision, continues with a nightmarish train journey, and then reveals the landscapes and people of Mexico with such a light touch that even the dullest patch of history becomes fascinating Although Bedford is frank about the horrors of travel, the highlight is the author's idyllic stay with Don Otavio, a bankrupt squire still inhabiting his lakeside house with 17 servants to wait on him.

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $16.69

• New

  Paperback
  2002

  $13.93

  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.