Youth and Egolatry – Pio Baroja, H.L. Mencken

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  • Paperback : 214 pages
  • ISBN-13 : 979-8562593733
  • Dimensions : 5 x 0.49 x 8 inches
  • Publisher : Notoir Books (November 10, 2020)
  • Language: : English

“He is the Spaniard of education and worldly wisdom, detached from the mediaeval imbecilities of the old régime and yet aloof from the worse follies of the demagogues who now rage in the country.”
– H.L. Mencken –

Pío Baroja is a product of the intellectual reign of terror that went on in Spain after the catastrophe of 1898, being the Spanish-American War. Although educated as a physician, Baroja only practiced this trade briefly. His true calling was always writing, which he began seriously at the age of 13.In keeping with Spanish literary tradition, Baroja often wrote in a pessimistic, picaresque style.

The present book was written at the height of the aforementioned war. But it is not about war. This book is interesting because it reads like the frank talking aloud of one very unusual man, and also as a representation of what is going on in the heads of a great many other Spaniards, during that war.

Later in life, Baroja even had to defend his concern here with aesthetic and philosophical matters at such a time. It is because of that, that this book, though it is addressed to Spaniards, should have a certain value for English-speaking readers also.

by Pío Baroja. Introduction by H.L. Mencken.