Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight
Alexander Fiske-Harrison
Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight
Alexander Fiske-Harrison spent a year travelling with bullfighters to watch them work in the bullrings and ranches of Spain. Along the way he entered the ring and ran with the bulls in Pamplona and trained with world famous matador Eduardo Dávila Miura with the ultimate aim: to fight a bull in the ring himself.
3.2 out of 5 based on 6 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Sports, Hobbies & Games, Travel |
| Format |
Paperback |
| Pages |
256 |
| RRP |
£15.99 |
| Date of Publication |
May 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1846683350 |
| Publisher |
Profile |
| |
Alexander Fiske-Harrison spent a year travelling with bullfighters to watch them work in the bullrings and ranches of Spain. Along the way he entered the ring and ran with the bulls in Pamplona and trained with world famous matador Eduardo Dávila Miura with the ultimate aim: to fight a bull in the ring himself.
Reviews
The Mail on Sunday
James Owen
"Fiske-Harrison's argument that the interplay between man and bull, when done with the highest skill, merits the tragedy will not convince many readers. But his descriptions of the fights are compelling and lyrical and his explanation of different uses of the matadors' capes is illuminating. One begins to understand what has captivated Spaniards for centuries."
10/07/2011
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The Literary Review
Miranda France
"His eye-witness reports of bullfights are particularly good. He transposes the spectacle into words with great success, conveying the drama of the corrida while explaining individual moves and techniques with eloquence and precision … Outside the arena Fiske-Harrison is less sure-footed."
01/08/2011
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The Financial Times
Dan Eltringham
"Although Into the Arena is full of intriguing detail — a fighting bull will never get to see a man on foot before it enters the ring — at times its subject encourages an overdone sense of writerly importance. However, the essential incongruity of an Englishman in the ring makes this book an engrossing introduction to bullfighting."
04/06/2011
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The Daily Mail
Mark Palmer
"Fiske-Harrison is guilty of some sloppy writing ... but this is an informed piece of work on a subject about which we are all expected to have a view. But what I really enjoyed about Into The Arena is that after nearly 300 pages I still couldn’t quite decide whether bullfighting should be banned or allowed to flourish."
26/05/2011
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The Sunday Times
Brian Schofield
"As the author, too self-regarding to be a wholly likeable narrator, races against time to be ready to fight and kill a bull “within the projected publication date of the book”, it is hard not to pray that he’ll fail, sparing an animal a pointless death for one man’s vainglorious ends. While Into the Arena begins by brilliantly capturing a fascinating, intoxicating culture, it ends by unwittingly exposing its fundamental truth — bullfighting is about brash young men killing dumb animals to show off."
29/05/2011
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The Spectator
Simon Courtauld
"Entertaining … The disappointment of this book is that it has more about the author than ‘the world of the Spanish bullfight’. He might have considered the significance of religion — almost all bullfighting ferias are held in honour of a saint, or a festival such as Pentecost or Corpus Christi — the effect of the economic recession on the future of la fiesta brava, and of the ban in Catalonia..."
25/06/2011
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