A Time of Gifts (New York Review Books Classics)
by Patrick Leigh Fermor, Jan Morris
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 166)
Read in July, 2008
I knew about Patrick Leigh Fermor from Antony Beevor's history of the German invasion of Crete and the British and Cretan resistance. Fermor was one of a group of British irregulars who, in virtue of their knowledge of (ancient) Greek, were sent by the British government to fight the Germans first on the Greek mainland and then on Crete. Fermor led a band of guerrillas who kidnapped a German general and transported him through the mountains to the other side of the island where he was then taken...more
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Read in January, 2006
"In cold weather like this," said the innkeeper of a Gastwirtschaft further down, "I recommend Himbeergeist." I obeyed and it was a lightning conversion. Spirits of raspberries, or their ghost--this crystalline distillation, twinking and ice-cold in its misty goblet, looked as though it were homoeopathically in league with the weather. Sipped of swallowed, it went shuddering through its new home and branched out in patterns--or so it seemed after a second glass--like the ice-...more
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Leigh Fermor's classic account took the genre of travel literature up a peg and remains a benchmark against which subsequent works in the genre seem rather feeble. He writes in an elegant, mature style while retaining his younger self's wide-eyed wanderlust. Like other books casting a rosy glow over the inter-war era, Fermor brings to life a vanished world. With heavy pack in tow, he jaunts past traditionally garbed peasants, stops in romantic estates and seems in perfect company with anyone f...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
fans of pre-WWII Europe, architecture, language, landscapes, history
This was at turns a fascinating and frustrating book. Fermor was better educated as an 18-year-old drop-out than pretty much anybody I've encountered. He travels Europe on foot, right as the Nazis are rising to power, and his powers of description of everything - really, truly everything - are amazing. But they are sometimes frustrating. Reading the book sent me to the dictionary constantly, and after a while I got a bit weary of the descriptions of soaring bits of architecture, the way the ...more
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In 1933, Patrick Leigh Fermor, aged 18, decided to walk from the Hook of Holland to Consantinople (Istanbul). This is the first part of his account of the journey, the people whom he mat (ranging from tramps to aristocrats and eveything in between.
I found the book fascinating - perhaps most in the descriptions of cities and countries which I have myself visited, and which have changed so much; also because although the book was not written until 50 years after the event, the author has recorde...more
I found the book fascinating - perhaps most in the descriptions of cities and countries which I have myself visited, and which have changed so much; also because although the book was not written until 50 years after the event, the author has recorde...more
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Have you ever so adored a book that you feel that everyone in the world should have the authors name on their lips and you want to buy every copy so you can force everyone you know to sit down and read it right now? But that the same time this book is so special, so truly unique in your life and also the universe, that to read it is sort of like the time in the Wizard of Oz when it all goes from black-and-white to Technicolor and only truly worthy people deserve moments like that so you also wa...more
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Read in March, 2008
A charming coming-of-age memoir from the erudite British adventurer. At age 18, after getting thrown out of school, Paddy Fermor took a ferry to Holland and walked to Istanbul. The introduction alone (about his wild childhood) is worth the price of admission. This book covers the first half of the trip, through Germany and Austria with a side trip to Prague. Vivid descriptions of nature & people; occasionally over the top in describing architectural details, but you can skip those parts...more
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Read in October, 2005
Patrick Leigh Fermor was only 18 when he set off for a long to walk from London to Istanbul. Even more remarkable, considering he set off in the middle of winter in the middle of the 1930s, as the Nazis were consolidating their power in Germany — i.e., directly in the path of his journey.
This is a beautiful book about a very young man, part memoir, part travelogue, an astonishing journey recollected 40 years later. I haven't yet read the sequel, Between the Woods and the Water. I'm ...more
This is a beautiful book about a very young man, part memoir, part travelogue, an astonishing journey recollected 40 years later. I haven't yet read the sequel, Between the Woods and the Water. I'm ...more
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Holy mackerel this is fun reading. Ignore the title, which sounds awfully lame, and get this right away, as well as Between The Woods and The Water, the companion volume. Absolute master of this sort of ENGLISH LANGUAGE... It really is something else.
Also, some of you people watched that recent documentary about the carthusians. If monks don't bore you too bad, have a look at "A Time To Keep Silence," also by Leigh Fermor
Also, some of you people watched that recent documentary about the carthusians. If monks don't bore you too bad, have a look at "A Time To Keep Silence," also by Leigh Fermor
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Read in March, 2008
An absolutely astounding travel book, covering the first leg of the author's trip, by foot, from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. I have never read a book that gave a better sense of place; Bruehgelesque landscapes, tiny Central European villages and the old world cities reduced to rubble by World War 2 appear before your eyes, thanks to the author's incredible vocabulary and an almost alchemical literary gift.
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This is an extraordinary account of one young man's trek across and rapidly changing Europe in 1932. Beginning with a trip on a small steamer ship from London to Rotterdam, Patrick Leigh Fermor begins the trip of a lifetime and one that will make you wish it was you. You will witness a lost Europe when you read these pages. I would recommend a good map of Europe and a good Pinot Noir with this book.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
any traveler scholar
Great travel story of an Englishman walking from the netherlands to Constantinople in 1933 and the various adventures along the way. very bookish fellow so lots of great commentaries about the art, history, geography of germany, austria, and I expect hungary and turkey. He also tells the story of taking a German General prisoner during WWII so that is bound to be exciting.
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My all-time favorite travel book, maybe my all-time favorite book. This is much more than a description of Fermor's walk across Europe in 1934 at age 18. Written in his 60s, he combines his memories of his walking tour and the people he encountered with all of his mature knowledge of history, art and architecture that was initially sparked by the trip. Superb!
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If there are many writers the equal of Patrick Leigh Fermor, it's a small group: Naipaul, Durrell, Sebald, Banville...
Read it and weep - so beautifully wrought, so packed with history, with the joys of youth, geography and yearning, that it simply breaks your heart every time you read it.
One of very few books I couldn't bear to finish.
Read it and weep - so beautifully wrought, so packed with history, with the joys of youth, geography and yearning, that it simply breaks your heart every time you read it.
One of very few books I couldn't bear to finish.
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Read in November, 2007
Okay, I have to admit that I tried again and again and again but just couldn't read the whole thing. Maybe it's not a before-bedtime book, but I found myself doing anything, even watching TV(!), before going to bed rather than continue reading this book. So I eventually gave up. Maybe one day I'll try again, when I'm ready.
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Read in June, 2008
The first half of the travel memoirs about a guy who walked from Holland to Constantinople in 1933. An absolutely fascinating story, but told in a way that really requires some trudging through at times. It might be impossible, for example, for someone to describe the architecture of an abbey in a way I want to read.
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Read in January, 1986
You're 18. You're well-off. You've just been bounced from school. What to do?
How about hiking the breadth of Europe as the Nazis rise to power?
It would really help, though, if you were a thoroughly gifted writer like our boy Leigh here. Yes, that would make it, not just a travel book, but a readable one.
How about hiking the breadth of Europe as the Nazis rise to power?
It would really help, though, if you were a thoroughly gifted writer like our boy Leigh here. Yes, that would make it, not just a travel book, but a readable one.
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Read in August, 2008
A young man goes for a long walk, an old man writes the story. The time between the journey of PLF and when he wrote this book improves his every observation. Young PLF becomes an analog for a Europe yet to be aged and ruined by the Second World War.
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this book is amazing, both for its beautiful descriptions of europe before the second world war, and for the brilliant digressions into history, classics, or whatever. viewing the world through the lens of plf's incredible erudition is a real treat.
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In 1933, at age 18, PLF walked from Amsterdam to Constantinople (Istanbul) & wrote this half of the account from his journals in the 70s. It's incredible!
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