Word: brenan
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...Life of One's Own, by Gerald Brenan. A sharp-eyed and superbly honest autobiography of a 69-year-old Englishman who, at 25, opted out of civilization to pursue a hermit's vocation...
...Life of One's Own, by Gerald Brenan. A sharp-eyed and superbly honest autobiography by a 69-year-old Englishman who at 25 opted out of civilization to pursue a hermit's vocation...
...Gasman Goeth. Brenan lives in Spain-not because it is romantic but "because it is cheap"-surrounded by a 2,000-book library, writing distinguished books about Spain (South from Granada, The Spanish Labyrinth], and glumly accepting visits from old Bloomsbury friends like Lytton Strachey. What makes Brenan's story unique and the telling of it a rare pleasure is the one quality that distinguishes him from the ordinary run of men-his indifference to the opinions of others. In the cozy modern commonwealth of man, he never learned to snuggle up to his fellows. He had a hermit...
Despite his Irish patronymic, Brenan is at pains to make clear that he came from a long, dull line of clodheaded north-of-England squires and manufacturers. His father was a professional soldier of limited mind, his mother a vague sort. Neither wasted affection on their solitary son, whose sole oddity consisted in his early-formed will to remain solitary. On the surface he was dutiful and won a scholarship to Radley, where he learned the natural eccentric's trick of fitting himself to the prescribed philistine middle-class mold while preserving his essence intact. His hero was Rimbaud...
...World. But Paris looked at him with an indifference to match his own, and (less conspicuously dressed) he took off for points east with a donkey and a rather nutty companion who was a much more usual type of rebel, a romantic poseur who was doing what Brenan was incapable of-making a gesture. Of course, the romantic cracked first. Brenan trudged on alone (barefoot through snow when his boots gave out in the Balkans) and only turned back when it dawned on him that he was not enjoying himself...