Federico García Lorca - The Gypsy Ballads

Special edition with a study by Christian De Paepe

The Gypsy Ballads It is one of the most significant lyrical creations of the 20th century. A culmination of Lorca's first aesthetic period, the poet himself defines it as “the poem of Andalusia”and calls him a gypsy because “The gypsy is the highest, the deepest, the most aristocratic of my country, the most representative of its way of life and the one who guards the ember, the blood and the alphabet of Andalusian and universal truth.”

It is, however, a book where the Andalusia that is seen is barely expressed, but where the unseen Andalusia trembles: an anti-picturesque, anti-folkloric, anti-flamenco book, where the figures serve ancient backgrounds and where there is only one character, large and dark like a summer sky: the Penalty.

This volume includes the edition by Christian De Paepe, recognized as one of the leading Lorca scholars, with a study of the aesthetics and structure of Romancero and a detailed thematic and stylistic annotation. Also included are a general introduction by Esperanza Ortega, a documentary appendix, and commentaries on the ballads.