Winter in Majorca

Rating:
Summary: A Classic of Its Kind: A Season in Hell
Review: I found this book disappointing, because I expected it to be about the relationship between George Sand and Frederic Chopin while in Majorca. However, this book has absolutely nothing to do with either Sand or Chopin. This book is entirely made up of George Sand describing the scenery, people, and foods of Majorca, and just complaining about how she hated it there. And to make it worse, there are footnotes on every page saying that Sand was totally wrong about everything she was saying. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless they wanted to read up on what Majorca was like during the 1800's.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I found this book disappointing, because I expected it to be about the relationship between George Sand and Frederic Chopin while in Majorca. However, this book has absolutely nothing to do with either Sand or Chopin. This book is entirely made up of George Sand describing the scenery, people, and foods of Majorca, and just complaining about how she hated it there. And to make it worse, there are footnotes on every page saying that Sand was totally wrong about everything she was saying. I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless they wanted to read up on what Majorca was like during the 1800's.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic of Its Kind: A Season in Hell
Review: Sand's chronicle of a wretched season spent on the Balearic island of Mallorca is the archetype for the "bad-trip" school of travel writing. Caustic, spiteful and utterly devoid of sentimentality or remorse, Sand (who was visiting with her beastly young daughter, Solange, and an ailing Frederic Chopin) trashes everything Mallorcan, from the olive oil, to the weather, to the landscape, to the moral character of the islanders. (If only the British and German package tourists who have colonized and defaced Mallorca in the 20th century had read Sand beforehand!)

An added pleasure in this edition is the sniping and meticulous footnoting by Mallorcan expat Robert Graves. He gainsays and qualifies nearly every contentious little gripe of Sand's, providing the reader with an interesting cross-generational literary (and personal) cat/dog-fight.

My guess is, if you enjoy the withering observations of Paul Theroux and his disciples, you will enjoy Sand's nasty little book. If, however, you like your travel books in soft-focus and heavy on the ambience and schmaltz, look elsewhere.