The last old place : a search through Portugal / Datus C. Proper ; introduction by Jan Morris.

Author
Proper, Datus C. [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
New York : Simon & Schuster, ©1992.
Description
254 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Forrestal Annex - ADP526.5 .P76 1993 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Summary note
    Account of the author's travels through Portugal searching for the old ways and customs.
    Notes
    "A Destinations book."
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-241) and index.
    Contents
    • Introduction / Jan Morris
    • 1. Lost Souls. Nymphs of the Tagus. Indiana Jones versus d'Artagnan. Wriggly lunches. Out-of-body experiences and how to recover from them. Adriano's top stratum. Husbandry versus display. You smell good, Lisbon. The blackbird's cage. American detective solves gruesome case
    • 2. The Last Old Place. The deeds I tell of are real. Picturing Portugal. Why it exists as an independent country. A heroic affront to bankers. Time as a third dimension. The discoveries as myth. Camões as their author. Love is a fire that burns unseen
    • 3. Lisbon. How to achieve Commiseration without needing it. The Portuguese woman analyzed. How to recognize Americans abroad. The fish market. Yolks versus whites. Eat in Portugal: sing in Ireland. The man-on-horseback ratio. Peripheral vision and naked ladies. Casino of the living dead. Escaping the cage. The hunter-gatherer's Portugal. Strawberries and wine
    • 4. The World Beyond Fear. Adriano as hero-driver. Gypsies. A cure for sneezing. Field guide to the fauna of southern Portugal. A clash of pruderies. A Sacred Promontory. Fishermen as its guardians. Prince Henry the Navigator (and vestal). The English connection. The discovery of science. Sailing off the end of the world. Finding India on purpose and America by mistake. Colonization by procreation. Conquests to shame Don Juan. The dream time. The exploring urge today
    • 5. Migrants. A beach bereft of clothing. Dream boats. British, Danes, Dutchmen, and other English-speakers. Partridges, modesty, and wine of the country. Salazar as Hobbes and Reagan as Locke. A violent fruit. Human versus canine humor. Men are merriest when they are from home. St. James at the partridges! The bravest of the Christians. Hedgehogs don't fly. Voyage through the alimentary canal. A snack of snipe. A Pleistocene fantasy. Fondling a becasse. Shooting yourself. A man of the revolution in search of his violence --
    • 6. Walls. Giraldo the Fearless. Bars sunny and dark. The motorcycle as donkey and charger. Beja. The Battler conquers senility. A lamentable shortage of Moors. Being lazy in a clean house. Bread, peace, happiness, and love. The revolution of 1974. Communist steaks. Physicians without liability insurance. Soap operas. A coherent newspaper. Saved by Communists. Looking at meninas. Monsaraz. Nuno Álvares slept here. A good-smelling church. Évora. Giraldo shows how to cope with walls. The decay of sex. A human sacrifice
    • 7. Sunlight. Chasing goddesses. Temple of Diana. The Cro-Magnon migration. Time when myths began. The invention of wealth. Moors and agriculture. Hoes versus falcons. The oldest profession. Olives fresh and cured. Sleeping with a lamb. The Hunter's Sun. Death without fear. Bringing the goat. Grasslands and oaks. Lost at the crossroads of history. An Alentejo wilderness. The Pleistocene connection. The quality of light is not strained. A search for Noble Savages. They resist discovery. Running water won't kill you. A liberated female. The mount of lunch. Salt cod and rosmaninho. Cork oaks dripping light
    • 8. Home. The American image of Portugal, and vice versa. Shiftless transmissions as original sin. Innocence and decadence. A roadhouse with real food. Home as landscape. Ancestors at the hearth. Laps and warm arms. A bread oven and a mother's hands. Fly fishing and religion. Dona Maria Rosa. The countryside as a British invention. Cultural independence. A wholesome and merry walk at our own ease. High Cooking. The Escargot Line. Democracy versus good food. Music and dreams
    • 9. Water Nymphs. Limpid streams. Dashing into the water fully dressed. Bowdlerizing the national epic. What happens when Nereids put on weight. Suckling pigs. Fishing and passion. A miller's tale. A troll. Flowers from stone. Love as a multiple-choice question. The goats' music. Killing what you love. Scores and trophies. Impaling Hemingway. Wild strawberries. A happy blackbird. A fulfilled dog. Trout as Nereids. Nereids as Nereids
    • 10. A Church Called Battle. A mythic, real, beautiful, horrible battle. This land never subjugated. Five-to-one odds. The knighting of Sir Datus. The Englishmen and the loaves. History's most perfect hero. Nothing disappears forever, and less so our deeds. Juan versus João. The Wing of the Lovers. The English longbows. Nuno Ávares and his Vanguard. An advance in slow cadence, trumpets blaring. The world turned upside down. Cry "God for Harry, England, and St. George!" Meter and the martial spirit. The brave bulls. The brave horses. Portugal and Spain today. Sparrows as souls. Being buried in your work. Dreaming of Aljubarrota. Bless us, Saint Constable --
    • 11. A Serious People. Camões and Venus. A view from the University of Coimbra. The Portuguese language compared odiously to English, Spanish, and French. Learning languages. The tongue of the troubadours. Languages in song. Real women versus True Romances. The black dress as chrysalis. The macho as Anglo-Saxon, Uruguayan, and Brazilian. The Iberian male code. The purpose of sex. Manhood and commitment. Rites of passage. Manhood and defense of the tribe. A kinder, gentler world? The qualities of the serious person. Adriano and the rattlesnakes
    • 12. Secrets of Nature. What men see in nature. Freud revised by Oomph and Whoopee. Sex and hunting, or vice versa. Drinking Portugal's longest river at its source. How to wash your socks. The gorge of the Mondego. A trout the finch gave me. Why trout are female for all but English-speakers. A "man that lovith ffisshying and ffowling both." The passage. The viper. A not-so-female trout. Bells and voices. Wilderness as the Noble Savage. The balance of nature, if any. A name lilke a growl. Wolves that won't dance. Crickets that will. Cheese from the rockrose. Dinner in the Middle Ages
    • 13. Cages and Bottles. Water as a knife. The carving of northern Portugal. Geology versus creationism. Landlocked Portuguese. Bird caged, woman likewise. The dangers of fresh air. A family winery. My vintages with musts fermented. Popping the cork. Official's turf. A medieval horror show. What to do with a pelourinho if you've got one hanging around. Saint Sebastian slaughtered. King Sebastian likewise. A cook appreciated. Innocents abroad and European reactions to them. Sheeseburgers and pizza. Wine in Portugal and America. Brandy as a systemic antiseptic. Viriato's obstruction of history. Blood as fertilizer
    • 14. Singing to the Cuckoo. Zêzere's rocks as sculpture. Venus of the rock. A sound-and-light-and-touch-and-taste-and-smell show. The etiquette of cuckoos. Experiencing like Proust. Experiencing like a grown-up. The mall banished. Art and nature. Love, death, and immortality
    • 15. Noble Savage. The best of flavors. The Port-wine region as a constructed landscape. A stoutness exercise. Measuring happiness. Adriano the Fearless and Datus the Concerned. Civilization without roads. Half of a good shower. Looking for Secundino. Finding everything else. Bedrock of a nation. Our Lady of the Olive Tree. Our Nereid of Lower Brook. How not to get a kiss. Nature improved. Almost Narnia. A very old road. Being a stranger. The fishing rod as instrument of serendipity. The fall from grace. Noble Savages. Bread disrobed.
    ISBN
    • 0671782266
    • 9780671782269
    LCCN
    92022628
    OCLC
    26096276
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