George Borrow Society

Works

A complete list of Borrow's writings, with links to free electronic editions, may be found here.

Borrow's reputation is based on the six works that were published during his lifetime by John Murray:

Lavengro

Lavengro is a neglected masterpiece of Victorian literature, a truly original and unique work. It is based on Borrow ’s own extraordinary early life, moving all around Britain as a child, teaching himself a dozen languages as a teenager (including the Romani language that he picks up from some Gypsies whom he befriends), and working for a year as a hack journalist in London. The book then describes the idyllic summer that he spent as a young man, wandering around rural England, having various adventures, and ending up living as a Gypsy tinker, sharing his campsite with a proudly independent peddler girl. More.

The Romany Rye

The Romany Rye continues the story of Borrow’s summer spent travelling around England as a Gypsy (as told in Lavengro). We again meet the lively Petulengro Gypsy family, Belle the proud peddler girl, and the mysterious 'man in black', while George later becomes a horse-dealer. We also meet numerous other characters that George encounters on his travels, all of whom have a story to tell. More.

Wild Wales

Wild Wales is the most accessible of all Borrow’s works. It is a travelogue, describing various long tramps that he made on foot all over Wales in the 1850s. His travels took him in search of bards in Anglesey, up Snowdon with his step-daughter, and across remote mountains down to the newly industrialising South. It is enlivened throughout by the many fascinating conversations he had with the local Welsh people. More.

The Bible in Spain

Don’t be put off by the title! The book may well be an account of 'The Journeys, Adventures and Imprisonments of an Englishman in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula' but the key word here is 'adventures', as it is packed with tales of dangerous journeys and encounters with wild Gypsies and assorted ruffians, all set against the backdrop of an exotic foreign country riven by civil war. It became an instant best-seller and remains Borrow’s most fascinating travelogue. More.

The Zincali

Borrow’s first published book, The Zincali, was based on his encounters with Spanish Gypsies while he was living in Spain but drew on his experiences of Gypsies in Britain and other parts of Europe and his knowledge of the Romani dialects. It was one of the first books to depict Gypsies in a more positive and realistic light and was the foundation of Borrow’s reputation as 'the father of Gypsy studies'. More.

Romano Lavo-Lil

Romano Lavo-Lil was Borrow’s last published work. Although it was presented as essentially an English-Romani dictionary, with examples of Romani speech, it also contains valuable descriptions of Gypsy life in England in the 1870s. More.