Album of a madman

Álbum de un loco is an itinerary through a series of themes that interested José Zorrilla and that are exposed throughout the book in a secret order:

• The human race
• The Egyptians
• The Phoenicians
• Greece
• Rome
• Monasteries
• Arabia
• The Arabic language
• Muhammad

These are interspersed with poems dedicated to society women or even to Queen Isabel II of Bourbon.
As its title states, Álbum de un loco is an album of fleeting moments lived by its author and of historical reflections amplified with the breath of poetry.
It is also interesting to read Zorrilla’s ideas about Islam from the present, and to perceive the human story told here as a continuous search for an inspired wisdom, seldom achieved and always longed for.

Introduction and prospectus

I
Anyone, who in a book or a newspaper,
determines to print your opinions,
believes the most necessary and methodical
give causes and reasons for your writing,
and in a prospectus, foreword or program,
of the public about it draws attention.
There, with more clumsiness or more ingenuity,
either in pretentious or humble style,
according to his character or his genius.
It begins, in an emphatic or calm tone,
to twist the first thread out of its idea,
and invoking very loudly holy names,
RELIGION, FREEDOM, VIRTUE OR SCIENCE,
promises, at the very least, to men
wealth, enlightenment, independence,
peace, joy, well-being… It announces, in short,
that the universal good has in his pen.