Tales of the Alhambra: A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards

I can hardly express how much I enjoyed this book! The detail that Irving wrote allowed me to see what he saw in the Alhambra, along the road to from, and the environs of Granada with great clarity. The way he describes the people--in real life and in the stories--caused me to see and understand them well; additionally the descriptions are frequently rather funny. The stories are in the Arabian Nights tradition and throughly enjoyable. Each one is interesting, exciting, and has an ending in which right triumphs. The end of each story left me with a positive sense of satisfaction. This entire volume is appropriate for family listening; perhaps something much better to excite imagination than a pile of DVDs for the kids on a family vacation road trip.

The reader has a voice that fits perfectly with the material. I found him easy to listen to and clear in his reading. As the book ended I felt truly sad that it was over. I will listen to this book again, and I don't think or feel that way about most of the books I listen to even if I have truly enjoyed them. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who savors wonderful stories, read well.

In the top 10

The lyric quality of the writers words

No, but he has a euphonious and elegantly paced reading voice expressive and allowing the listener hours of story without listener fatigue

It made me want to go immediately to the Andalusia and Granada area and see the Alhambra

What wonderful words and expressions the early nineteenth writers employed to paint vivid pictures of their travellings
The name of Washington Irving while famous in his era circa 1830,s is probably not that well known today, but what is certain is that his mastery of the English language albeit he was american,was superb. Whatever has been the advances in our present English, I recommend listening to this delightful prose to fall in love with the language as it was written 180 years ago!

This is a slow moving book.

It was interesting to read about Spain and the Alhambra as it was so long ago. The characters are well drawn, the stories are fascinating. My only complaint would be the lisp and monotonous tone of the reader. That almost put me off when I first started to listen to the book. I would still recommend it, I did get used to reader eventually.