This book provides a thoroughly edited text of Antonio Machado's Campos de Castilla, one of twentieth-century Spain's best-loved volumes of poetry. An extensive Introduction offers an in-depth commentary on his themes, techniques and metaphysical manner. In addition to examining the various influences on his work - Krausism, Bergsonism and the '98 Generation's concern for "el problema de Espana" - the Introduction looks closely at Machado's life, especially the years of compisition, 1907-1917, and it traces the critical phases in his poetic development: the discovery of the Castilian landscape in Soria, his growing political consciousness, his personal tragedy as a bereaved husband, his existential meditations in Baeza. Annotations in the form of Endnotes provide additional factual information and clarify points of difficulty in the text.
This is an edition of an important early work by a writer who has since become a leading Latin-American author and a figure in Peruvian politics. It provides a picture of the hedonistic and selfish lifestyle of the young men and women who will one day become Peru's ruling elite.
