Medina Casado, Carmelo and José Ruiz Mas (eds). 2010. Las cosas de Richard Ford.
Estampas varias sobre la vida y obra de un hispanista inglés en la España del siglo XIX.
Jaén: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Jaén. (ISBN 978-84-8439-540-9;
308 pages).
This book is a compilation of chapters written on different aspects of the life and works of the
renowned English traveller and hispanist Richard Ford (1796-1858) in commemoration of his
death 150 years ago. As the author of A Handbook of Travellers in Spain, and Readers at
Home (1845, followed by numerous reeditions and updatings throughout the 19th and 20th
centuries) and Gatherings from Spain (1846), of no less fame, among other "Spanish" works,
he is considered to be one of the most prominent and influential of the "curiosos
impertinentes" who set foot in our country in the 19th century. It is no coincidence that his
contemporary fellowmen considered him to be the "Rerum Hispaniae Indagator Acerrimus"
of his age. The editors (both lecturers at the University of Jaén) have made sure that the
contributors, from a wide number of universities both home and abroad, are all well known
researchers and specialists on travel literature in Spain of the 19th century. They all open up
new routes in the studies of English hispanism in such a turbulent century of Spain's history.
The approaches are varied and daring: aspects such as Ford’s views on women, his visits to
Extremadura and Burgos; his artistic activities and his collections of Spanish art, his
relationship with another key figure of the age, George Borrow; the image of bandits as seen
in the Ford-Addington correspondence; the influence of his books on later travel accounts, his
legal background and how this affected his observations on all things Spanish, and his
opinions on the Spanish Guardia Civil, are relevant issues dealt with in this kaleidoscopic
book.