El País Vasco

In 1953, one of Pío Baroja´s most ambitious works was published: it was a journey book about the country which saw him be born and from which his most charismatic characters would appear. He entitled it The Basque Country and as it was his style, the quotations referred to each of the different towns and cities through which this famous traveller passed through were full of sarcastic, biting and even pleasant comments.
Such a perception allows us to point out that it is not only a book of Geography or Science, but a social treatise about the people living in that area, the Basque people. Baroja says: “ Four are the different provinces by which the Spanish Basque Country is comprised: Alava, Guipúzcoa, Navarra and Vizcaya. Their respective county towns are the following ones: Vitoria, San Sebastián, Pamplona and Bilbao. Three are the provinces which constitute the French Basque Country: Labourd, Baja Navarra and Soule. The interest and suggestion which the Basque Country; not only in its Spanish area but also in its French one exert on the different visitors are mainly due to the originality of its typical characteristics which unify and make it different from the other countries”. More than 50 years later, this terrific and forgotten work, written by Pío Baroja recovers the present time again by the hand of Txalaparta publishing house.

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