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The Lycian Shore
Freya Stark, along with Gertrude Bell, was the greatest woman traveller of the 20th century - she was also one of the finest travel writers and inspired a whole generation who followed her. Here, she combines her sense of adventure with a unique eye for history and landscape.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Freya Stark
133 books177 followersFreya Stark was born in Paris, where her parents were studying art. Her mother, Flora, was an Italian of Polish/German descent; her father, Robert, an English painter from Devon.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 29, 2018
after falling in love with her style and passion for travel from reading 'the gates of southern arabia', I was slightly disappointed to see that she became a more verbose author, playing to a clique, that of course no longer exists ... that said, as one familiar with the stretch of coast they traverse, it was a fascinating insight into the last days of undeveloped innocence, before the money from tourism linked Lycia in a way that Alexander could only have dreamed off ... as well as leaving many unanswered questions, like the fortune telling snake people of what is now Fethiye ...
February 27, 2021
Even better than I remembered it. This is not, repeat not, a roadway map, listing and checking boxes of the stops made and goals achieved.
“A flock was trickling down the hillside, in scattered groups like drops towards the stream. It is always the image of the flock in the New Testament: no external compulsion holds it, and the partnership of the faithful is never a unity constrained in walls. The closed door is the image used for exclusion or death.”
No, in keeping with the mode of transport, a thirty-three foot motorsailor on a consular journey, it is a meditation on the deep history, like deep water, that closes over every headland, every bay, estuary, harbor and town along that stretch of coast which is now Turkey, but once bore names known throughout the western world as Ionia, Lycia, and the Greek Isles.
Freya Stark was born into a time when basic schooling included a thorough grounding in the history of western civilization, and also the languages that formed it, Greek and Latin. When she finds carved inscriptions from Alexander the Great’s time, or those of the Romans, she reads them out. And she knows their stories. She literally reads that coast.
And then she climbs out of the boat and sees places. It’s a wonderful read; one not galloped through, but wandered through and thought about.
A good break from books with “story arcs”, climactic scenes, big reveals.
“Perhaps, I thought as I rode along, this is the very point where the Greek path, after the fifth century, began to turn downhill.
The Greeks too accepted a world greater than themselves in the early Ionian days and the centuries that followed; its walls were out of sight and they made willingly towards them. Only when knowledge could detect, or feel that it detected, a boundary, did the pressure of the cage begin to close. Then happiness was at an end, until the horizon could be widened once more to lead beyond human knowledge, for the nomad dies in prison, and so does a man, in a world that he feels too small.”
“A flock was trickling down the hillside, in scattered groups like drops towards the stream. It is always the image of the flock in the New Testament: no external compulsion holds it, and the partnership of the faithful is never a unity constrained in walls. The closed door is the image used for exclusion or death.”
No, in keeping with the mode of transport, a thirty-three foot motorsailor on a consular journey, it is a meditation on the deep history, like deep water, that closes over every headland, every bay, estuary, harbor and town along that stretch of coast which is now Turkey, but once bore names known throughout the western world as Ionia, Lycia, and the Greek Isles.
Freya Stark was born into a time when basic schooling included a thorough grounding in the history of western civilization, and also the languages that formed it, Greek and Latin. When she finds carved inscriptions from Alexander the Great’s time, or those of the Romans, she reads them out. And she knows their stories. She literally reads that coast.
And then she climbs out of the boat and sees places. It’s a wonderful read; one not galloped through, but wandered through and thought about.
A good break from books with “story arcs”, climactic scenes, big reveals.
“Perhaps, I thought as I rode along, this is the very point where the Greek path, after the fifth century, began to turn downhill.
The Greeks too accepted a world greater than themselves in the early Ionian days and the centuries that followed; its walls were out of sight and they made willingly towards them. Only when knowledge could detect, or feel that it detected, a boundary, did the pressure of the cage begin to close. Then happiness was at an end, until the horizon could be widened once more to lead beyond human knowledge, for the nomad dies in prison, and so does a man, in a world that he feels too small.”
November 7, 2018
My first Freya Stark, an author I've been longing to read.
Unfortunately, from what I gather, this isn't the most accessible or representative book of her writings.
She is mostly writing about 3th and 4th century BC Greece. On this (mostly) boat journey she is usually referencing scholarly works in relation to the sites she is visiting. Unless you're somewhat knowledgeable in the history and characters it's a struggle to get much out of it. She doesn't offer much context or explanations. While I'm interested in the subject, I glossed over much of it.
Having said that, there were some things I found interesting and when she delved into describing the voyage and sites themselves and some of her inner thoughts it becomes a much more engaging read.
I definitely want to read more by her. I believe it's her Arabian travels that she's highly regarded for.
Unfortunately, from what I gather, this isn't the most accessible or representative book of her writings.
She is mostly writing about 3th and 4th century BC Greece. On this (mostly) boat journey she is usually referencing scholarly works in relation to the sites she is visiting. Unless you're somewhat knowledgeable in the history and characters it's a struggle to get much out of it. She doesn't offer much context or explanations. While I'm interested in the subject, I glossed over much of it.
Having said that, there were some things I found interesting and when she delved into describing the voyage and sites themselves and some of her inner thoughts it becomes a much more engaging read.
I definitely want to read more by her. I believe it's her Arabian travels that she's highly regarded for.
August 22, 2017
Freya Stark's travelogues tend to be rather difficult to get hold of, but I managed to pick up a copy of The Lycian Shore, in which she describes her journey of travelling around the coast of Turkey by yacht, 'following in the wake of the Greeks and Persians', for 25 pence in a charity shop. Whilst I love travel literature, I had never read any of Stark's work before picking this up. Arguably, The Lycian Shore is more about Greek history than anything else, and myth and history certainly overshadowed the travelogue part rather a lot, but Stark's intelligent prose made this an enjoyable book. I do prefer Rose Macaulay's travel books thus far, but will certainly be picking up more of Stark's books as and when I find them.
March 18, 2012
Last winter (2006) I read her Ionia, which I had picked up at the Seattle Public Library Book Sale, and really loved it. I put it off for a long time because I don’t really like travel writing, but it’s more history than anything, and she’s a brilliant and emotive writer. When I saw she had written on Lycia, I had to seek it out, as it’s one of my minor obsessions. The Lycian Shore, in modern parlance, is entirely made of awesome.
October 23, 2018
An interesting overview of Freya’s journey, and much better than Balfour’s recounting of the same trip. Freya displays her customary genuine passion for history and her interest in those she encounters while travelling, resulting in a wonderful blend of old and new storytelling. This particular book gets a bit esoteric at times, though it’s generally enjoyable and adds nicely to the travellers history of this fascinating coast.
Want to Read
April 23, 2013Freya Stark was mentioned in To War with Whitaker
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
August 25, 2023
Not a personal favorite in terms of the style of prose. It was a struggle for me to get through even half of the book. And the half I got through was the part of the Lycian Shore I've traveled through, so it kept me going. If one doesn't have a strong education in Greek history, this one may be a tough read as this book is largely her meditations on the various points of Greek history as they unfolded in these shores.
Giving it a low score because I couldn't finish the book, and I'm not even trying to convince myself that I will get back to it.
Giving it a low score because I couldn't finish the book, and I'm not even trying to convince myself that I will get back to it.
March 17, 2023
The author gives blow-by-blow accounts of Greek and Persian battles and history. I expected much more along the lines of her quote: "There are not so many places left where magic reigns without interruption and of all those I know, the coast of Lycia was the most magical." The book didn't really give me that, although I found Lycia to be magical, when I visited.
January 1, 2024
We’re 1952. There’s been a world war since Ms Stark adventured in Persia and Arabia—war years spent in the Middle East working at propaganda in the Allied cause.
By now she’s in her own sixtieth year. Those earlier adventures: the explorations and map-making, the exhilarations and dangers for a woman—often the first-ever European woman—journeying in unknown country, have softened to the gentler satisfactions of traveling in lands she adores.
This escape is in a five-ton motor-sailboat along the shores and islands between Smryna and Antalya, among landscapes written into history by Greeks, Persians and Romans and littered everywhere with their remains.
Travel brings reflection. Ms Stark’s are as captivating as her observations and her written style. Be prepared to trade her prewar thrills at brand-new discoveries in strange lands for this postwar meditation on a few hundred miles of remote coastline and its peoples, soon to change out of all recognition.
A glorious read.
By now she’s in her own sixtieth year. Those earlier adventures: the explorations and map-making, the exhilarations and dangers for a woman—often the first-ever European woman—journeying in unknown country, have softened to the gentler satisfactions of traveling in lands she adores.
This escape is in a five-ton motor-sailboat along the shores and islands between Smryna and Antalya, among landscapes written into history by Greeks, Persians and Romans and littered everywhere with their remains.
Travel brings reflection. Ms Stark’s are as captivating as her observations and her written style. Be prepared to trade her prewar thrills at brand-new discoveries in strange lands for this postwar meditation on a few hundred miles of remote coastline and its peoples, soon to change out of all recognition.
A glorious read.
June 11, 2022
The Lycian Shore
Freya Stark
This is the second book I have read by Freya Stark, and the second in what I understand to be a sort of trilogy (starting with Ionia, and ending with Alexander's Path), which documents her travels in Turkey during the 1950s. It doesn't exactly make for easy reading, but as with its predecessor, the qualities that make it so dense are also its greatest strengths. While the history might be easier to digest if I were more informed on the subject, the true joy of reading these accounts is to immerse yourself in her metaphor-laden descriptions of the Turkish coastline, and the people she met there.
4/5
Freya Stark
This is the second book I have read by Freya Stark, and the second in what I understand to be a sort of trilogy (starting with Ionia, and ending with Alexander's Path), which documents her travels in Turkey during the 1950s. It doesn't exactly make for easy reading, but as with its predecessor, the qualities that make it so dense are also its greatest strengths. While the history might be easier to digest if I were more informed on the subject, the true joy of reading these accounts is to immerse yourself in her metaphor-laden descriptions of the Turkish coastline, and the people she met there.
4/5
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews