I found this book compelling in lots of ways. I could see the wonderful scenery and feel the wind in my face. I could taste the wonderful food served to the writer as he sat in comfort in the warm cosy Inns he frequented along the way. The writer has conjured up the mystery and magic of a true Celtic country.

I thoroughly enjoyed Borrow and look forward to meeting this character in heaven, where I believe he and Tolkien are having a great time talking philology. This is one of those books that, when you are done reading, you feel that you have made a friend and you miss him now that it's over. I am eager to read his other writings.

This book (including Romany Rye, the sequel) is not an example of high-minded literature, but rather the account of Borrow's early life, and the beginning of his adventures. All escapades take place in the United Kingdom, of which he is admirably patriotic. As a character, he is actually somewhat quiet; but the situations and especially people he meets are both tangibly real (to a degree that I find unusual in a work of that time) and outlandish by any standards, Victorian (?) England's or ours. Above all the stories were fascinating, and are stamped permanently in my memory.

While one needs a taste for the "philological" to enjoy and understand these adventures, they are still only marvelous anecdotes, including brilliant character portraits and memorable descriptions.

One small quality that I appreciated, particularly since he writes so much of his experiences with Gypsies, is that Borrow is probably less rascist than many of his contemporaries seem to b! e.

By the way: while The Bible in Spain has the same qualities as Lavengro and Romany Rye, it is not nearly as well written; he indulges his taste for dry ramblings much more, and the interesting stories seem almost arbitrary in when he tells them and when he ends them; were he still alive, there would be much that I'd like him to elaborate on.

If anyone can tell me about his other writings (I have the impression that the quality can vary) I'd really appreciate some advice through email.

This is, at worst, an interesting, slightly racist (ethnicist?), and out dated book.

at best, it's an incredibly interesting study of not only a language but also the development of the language. I say it's racist because it does, at times, approach the Rom as inferior to Whites, but that was the standard attitude at the time. For the most part, the book is respectful and scholarly. It's also outdated in that much better work has been published -- most of which using "lavo lil" as a starting point. In addition, the book contains a lot of "tinker" patois... that is, slang of the area (great britain) as opposed to Romany.

I didn't expect to see this book listed on Amazon.com, but decided to do a quick search anyway. Here it is! I recomend buying this book if you are interested in the Rom, or in linguistics.

This is a rambling but amusing autobiographical tale of George Borrow, as he meanders through Portugal, Spain, Gibralter, and the Barbary Coast. Although his ostensible mission is to distribute New Testaments (not full Bibles), it is clear he is also going out of his way to amuse himself. Borrow speaks virtually every language, and, as such, manages to travel through a country torn by civil war and rampant banditry without ever getting in serious trouble (his impisonment for distributing testaments not withstanding).

Unfortunately, this volume printed by IndyPublish.com is clearly a download from Project Guternberg or another website. It has CAPITALS where it should have italics, the formatting is poor for a reading book (gaps between the paragraphs rather than indents), and, most offensive, instead of a few passages in Greek, it has the words [Greek text which cannot be reproduced.] There are a dozen typographic errors. The margins are poorly laid out (the bottom margin should be larger than the top, not the other way around). Frankly, it looks almost as if the publisher didn't even proof the copy before sending it to press.

This volume is NOT worth the cover price. If you can find it published by any other source, the book is worth reading. If not, download it and read it that way -- at least you won't have the affront of having paid good money for a lazily produced volume.