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SPANISH MOUNTAIN LIFE, by Juliette de Bairacli Levy; Faber and Faber, English price 12/6. "HE author has achieved a small niche in English literature all to herself. She writes of gypsies, herbalism, the almost magical properties of water, Spanish mills and mountain herds with a passionate intensity, a kind of mysticism and often in splendid passages of light and colour. She and her little son Rufik are found lodging in a mill. They suffer typhus, take part in the life of the country, climb the Sierra. Her love of nature reaches pantheism. The sun and the mountains are almost deified, The water of the cool crystal fountains, the high snows of the Sierra Nevada, the trees and fruits of Andalucia take on personality. The swallows are the angels. There are devils, too. Typhus for her is the "red cloaked fiend," malignant and personal. On the other hand, (continued on next page)
[30 i S(continued trom previous page) so ignorant ig she of revealed religion, that in the description of a Corpus Caristi procession the little Snarich girls, walking backwards before the Host, are said to cest ‘heir fe rm before the priest. "He attracted to himself’ (she thinks) "a most sweet rite." Nevettheless, all in all, Spanish Mountain Li‘e is an exciting experience written with a poet’s sensibility and greatly to be recommended.
F. J.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560803.2.25.5
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 887, 3 August 1956, Page 13
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229CLOSE TO NATURE New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 887, 3 August 1956, Page 13
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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