⇒ Libro Between the Woods and the Water On Foot to Constantinople From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates New York Review Books Classics Patrick Leigh Fermor Jan Morris 9781590171660 Books

Between the Woods and the Water On Foot to Constantinople From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates New York Review Books Classics Patrick Leigh Fermor Jan Morris 9781590171660 Books

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Between the Woods and the Water On Foot to Constantinople From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates New York Review Books Classics Patrick Leigh Fermor Jan Morris 9781590171660 Books

The twentieth-century's most remarkable English-language travel narrative, telling the story of a walk from Hungary to the eastern marches of Europe, this book is a completely absorbing bit of time-travel as well, transporting us back to lost natural and cultural worlds. Fermor's eye for the natural world is as remarkable as is his ability to capture centuries of history. If you like Bruce Chatwin's writing you will love this book, as well as its prequel; but for this reader, this is Fermor's masterpiece, as (amazingly) he writes of a journey undertaken in 1933, but as remembered a lifetime later.


Tags : Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics) [Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jan Morris] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Continuing the epic foot journey across Europe begun in A Time of Gifts</i></b> The journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on in 1933—to cross Europe on foot with an emergency allowance of one pound a day—proved so rich in experiences that when much later he sat down to describe them,Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jan Morris,Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics),NYRB Classics,1590171667,Essays & Travelogues,Europe - General,Danube River Valley - Description and travel,Danube River Valley;Description and travel.,Europe, Eastern - Description and travel,Europe, Eastern;Description and travel.,Fermor, Patrick Leigh - Travel - Danube River Valley,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,CentralEastern Europe,Danube River Valley,Description and travel,Europe, Eastern,Fermor, Patrick Leigh,General Adult,History,Non-Fiction,TRAVEL,TRAVEL Essays & Travelogues,TRAVEL Europe General,TRAVEL Special Interest Adventure,Travel & holiday guides,Travel - Foreign,United States,autobiography; travel writing; biography; 20th century; travelogue; adventure; essays; culture; geography; autobiographies; biographies; biographies and memoirs; memoirs; travel books; memoir; biographies of famous people; travel gifts; autobiography books; gifts for travelers; biography books; travel gift; traveling gifts; travel gifts for women; travel gifts for men; travel gift ideas; fun travel gifts; gift for travelers; gifts for travel; french; prague; walking; wanderlust; classic; french literature; england; journalism,biography;autobiography;adventure;eastern europe;anthropology;autobiographies;european history;biographies;biographies and memoirs;adventure books;explorers;biographies of famous people;travel;memoirs;travel books;fitness;history;memoir;travel gifts;europe travel guide;travel book;bucket list;autobiography books;europe map;europe;europe travel;memoir books;eastern europe travel guide;europe travel book;caves;exploration;adventure book;adventure gifts;mountain climbing;travel adventure books,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Personal Memoirs,TRAVEL Essays & Travelogues,TRAVEL Europe General,TRAVEL Special Interest Adventure,Travel - Foreign,Danube River Valley,Description and travel,Europe, Eastern,Fermor, Patrick Leigh,Travel,Travel & holiday guides

Between the Woods and the Water On Foot to Constantinople From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates New York Review Books Classics Patrick Leigh Fermor Jan Morris 9781590171660 Books Reviews

The title above is German for "Absolutely nothing!", Fermor's droll reply to "What are you studying?" when visiting a scholar with his newfound Transylvanian friend Istvan, who laughs about such blasphemy all the way back from the visit. The polymathic Fermor had contemplated his answer a few moments before answering-"Languages? Art? Geography? Folklore? Literature? None of them seemed to fit." The truth is, of course, as anyone who has read of anything of Fermor's knows full well, that Fermor has been studying all of these things, but with his own assiduous, unacademic zeal. This time he spent in Transylvania (The country's name meaning, as any first year Latinist would know, "Across the Woods") is by far my favourite His escapades with Istvan, the fleeting amour with Angela, the effortless historical erudition about the region all make it exemplary of the book as a whole - which is not to slight the rest of it at all!

I disagree profoundly with the reviewers who take umbrage at Fermor's "esoteric" use of language and historic allusion. For the armchair traveler, these qualities make the book just that much more fun - Diving into the OED and various encyclopedias to thresh out some of the references.

The overall effect of this book, as with A Time of Gifts, is best likened to a friendly punch in the gut by an old chum. It takes you at unawares but leaves you invigorated and happy to be alive in the world. Yes, there are sadnesses to the book, not the least of which is that the beautiful View of the Danube near Regensburg on the cover of the NYRB edition is now underwater, lost forever; But as Fermor contemplates as his time with Angela draws to a close, "There are hours in life worth more than diamonds." This book is full of them!

And all these youths chain-smoking cigarettes! Perhaps the Surgeon General should put a warning label on the book lest a youth of today discover the vibrant meaning of carpe diem!
Budapest... the Hungarian Plains... Romania... Transylvania. Sound capital-R Romantic? It's that and more in the adept hands of Patrick Leigh Fermor. This continues the story of his 1934 travels through Europe as a 19-year-old. And if anything, the pastoral settings of Eastern Europe suit his descriptive hand even better than this book's predecessor, A TIME OF GIFTS. Here is a glimmer of Fermor's writing as he describes the Carpathian Uplands

"These great forest chambers, bounded by mingled stretches of hardwood and underbrush, slanted uphill and out of sight in a confusion of roots. Freshets channeled the penumbra, falling from rocky overhangs into pools that could be heard from afar, or welled up through husks and dead leaves and turned into streams. There had been two hoopoes in the lower woods and bee-eaters, with an eye to the hives perhaps, perched on twigs near the harvesters' clearing; golden orioles, given away by their black and yellow plumage and the insistent shrill curl of their song, darted among the branches. But every so often invisible flocks of wood-pigeons plunged everything under a spell so drowsy, it was hard, sitting down for a smoke, to keep awake; then a footfall would loose off a hundred flurried wings and set them circling in the speckled light of one of the forest ballrooms like Crystal Palace multitudes calling for Wellingtonian hawks."

It resembles an idyll, the way his pen lends itself to descriptive passages of nature, and the wild beauties of this more mysterious corner of Europe comes to life because of it. Part III of this book has yet to be published, though they say Fermor completed most of it before his recent death in June of 2011. Until then, if you are a devotee of travel writing or nature writing, you owe yourself a look at Fermor's delightful tandem, A TIME OF GIFTS followed by BETWEEN THE WOODS AND THE WATER.
The twentieth-century's most remarkable English-language travel narrative, telling the story of a walk from Hungary to the eastern marches of Europe, this book is a completely absorbing bit of time-travel as well, transporting us back to lost natural and cultural worlds. Fermor's eye for the natural world is as remarkable as is his ability to capture centuries of history. If you like Bruce Chatwin's writing you will love this book, as well as its prequel; but for this reader, this is Fermor's masterpiece, as (amazingly) he writes of a journey undertaken in 1933, but as remembered a lifetime later.