Entre 1836 y 1840 (los años de la primera guerra carlista, la desamortización y la primera regencia), GEORGE BORROW viajó por cuenta de la Sociedad Bíblica británica con el objeto de difundir el Nuevo Testamento en una edición sin comentarios y accesible para todos. La vocación apostólica de «Don Jorgito el inglés» (por ese nombre era conocido en Madrid) le permitió recorrer media España y ser protagonista o testigo de múltiples incidentes encuentros con bandidos, arrestos y detenciones, conspiraciones de gitanos (ocupados de los misteriosos «asuntos de Egipto»), amenazas de muerte* cuyo recuerdo vertió, a su vuelta a Inglaterra, en LA BIBLIA EN ESPAÑA, libro que alcanzó de inmediato gran éxito y difusión.Manuel Azaña, traductor y prologuista en 1921 de la edición española, señala el novelesco interés de muchas aventuras, que parecen propias de un libro picaresco, pero por encima de todo destaca su carácter de obra de arte, de creación, que lo sitúa entre los mejores libros de su género.

Alianza Editorial, 1970. Comprado en Feria del libro abril 2016

Borrow is always entertaining to read: he was one of the great English eccentrics of the early 19th century, and his writings are a wonderfully inconsistent mixture of the genuine pleasure he takes in the world around him, the rather immodest fun he has showing off his own remarkable talents, and his gloriously prejudiced views on religion, politics and the superiority of the English.

In this book he's travelling around Spain and Portugal on behalf of the British and Foreign Bible Society, trying to give poor benighted Roman Catholics the opportunity to read the Bible in their own language. This gives him the excuse to travel around part of Portugal and most of Spain. Spain is in the middle of the Carlist uprising of 1835-39, so things are in rather a mess and travel is often dangerous and uncomfortable. Nonetheless, Borrow finds a lot to interest him in scenery, architecture, the local history, industries and food, and above all the great variety of people and horses he meets. As a linguist, he's fascinated by the many languages and dialects he comes across (even though he does have a tendency to criticise people for not speaking their own languages as well as they might); as a student of Gypsy culture he delights in the opportunity to make contact with Spanish Gypsies.

From time to time, particularly in the later parts of the book, he remembers that he's here to work, and has a go at selling some Spanish New Testaments. He goes to some trouble to persuade the reader that the ordinary Spanish, and even some clergymen, are happy to get the chance to read the Scriptures. Obviously, we can't tell from the book alone how much of this is propaganda and how much is true, but we can imagine that in the middle of a civil war and an economic depression, people might be glad to get cheap books of any description. The Catholic church does, however, make trouble with the Spanish authorities, so he and his colleagues are arrested a few times (but unfortunately, never kept in jail for long enough to make really good publicity).

Eventually, the government effectively makes it impossible for him to carry on selling Bibles in Spain, so he moves on to Gibraltar and Tangier to dispose of his remaining stock before coming home, so we get nice descriptions of those places as well, as a bonus before the book comes to a rather abrupt end in a Tangerine courtyard. ( )

Borrow travels all over Spain in the early 19th century with the aim of selling and setting up the printing of bibles to give the Spanish the holy word without any Catholic inter mediation. He viewed his book as something of a guidebook noting to bring some food if you stop at an inn. They'll cook it for you but they won't give you any. Also make sure that you are armed as you will certainly be shot at and if the number of flies round your horses becomes impossible then put bags over their heads. ( )