SPRING IN SPAIN

This is a sophisticate's guide to Spanish journeyings, a sophisticate with sample time (and adequate funds). In part the record of a personal hegira; in part an informed commentary on Spain's historical antecedents, on the great and near great of her past, on her artists- both from the human angle and the creative. There is a bountiful feast of colorful impressions, of architecture and atmosphere, of cities and rural areas. There is a dash of down-to-earth details on food and drink and inns and locomotion. But it is no Peedecker- no Clara Laughlin, to be used as a handbook. Rather is it a book to read in advance, the better to enjoy what one hopes to see, to enrich one's anticipation and dreams, to inform one's realization. This is more in the mood and tempo of a Ruskin or a Lucas, though sometimes one feels that the style partakes of the rococo and baroque of which he writes so glowingly. Typographically, it is a beautiful book and what photographs there are lend distinction. One could wish for more. The map end papers are effective and helpful, and the gay jacket should provide a sales point. For those who know Mr. Helm's books on Mexico, this one has added significance.