Black Lamb and Grey Falcon 2 of 3

by Rebecca West, Donada Peters (Narrator)

Part Two Of Three Parts Written on the brink of World War II, West's classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is once again the center of international concern. A magnificent blend of travel journal, cultural commentary and historical insight, it probes into the troubled history of the Balkans and the uneasy relationships among its ethnic groups. The landscape and people of Yugoslavia are brilliantly observed as Rebecca West untangles the tensions that rule the country's history as well as its daily life. "A masterpieceas astonishing in its range, in the subtlety and power of its judgment, as it is brilliant in expression." (London Times)

Audio Cassette

Published April 19, 2000

About the author

Cicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. She was brought up in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she attended George Watson's Ladies College.

A prolific, protean author who wrote in many genres, West was committed to feminist and liberal principles and was one of the foremost public intellectuals of the twentieth century. She reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the Sunday Telegraph, and the New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder (1955), her coverage of the Nuremberg trials, published originally in The New Yorker; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of World War II and Communist traitors; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night, and Cousin Rosamund. Time called her "indisputably the world's number one woman writer" in 1947. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to British letters.

Reviews

[Colleen Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of my edition - an older one than this one (also with a picture of the same bridge but perhaps from an earlier time) calls this book "one of the great books of the (20th) century." Indeed.

I picked it up several years ago, drawn particularly by the picture of the bridge at Mostar, which I had seen myself in 1966. One of those sights that's unforgettable. But a thick paperback of 1100+ pages is one that is easy to set aside for another day. A houseguest, sleeping in the room where this book was on top of a pile, read a few pages and told me I should read it.

I started it in August and then set it aside when she got to Kosovo, about 2/3 the way through, and balked at the relentlessly anti-Turkish sentiment. Because I had lived in Turkey and originally travelled to then Yugoslavia from Turkey I found the anti-Turkish and anti-Muslim point of view hard to take. But after a lapse of several months I got back to it and finished it.

West is a wonderful writer and every page, almost every paragraph, is replete with insights about human behavior. One could underline these on almost every page. And of course she's hugely knowledgable without being an expert on the Balkans. She had taken one trip in the early 1930's and then being so take with Yugoslavia she traveled with her banker husband on a trip in the spring and early summer of 1937. So the coming war is looming over the trip. Her great informant and guide, Constantine - a metropolitan and well educated Serb - educated in Paris etc etc - has a German wife and eventually his ties to her interfere with his relationship with West and her husband.

A fascinating book all around.

[Javier Bollain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es tan bueno como el primero y con ese sentido del humor británico tan característico . El epilogo es sencillamente formidable.

[Sebastián Redondo · Rating 5 out of 5]

La segunda parte de un libro imprescindible para conocer los conflictos históricos de una región maltratada por los turcos, los húngaros, los austriacos y los rusos. Y atención a la alemana Gerda.

[Sofia V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué suerte haber podido leer este libro y haber visto también los lugares por los que paseo la autora. El epílogo es de lo mejor que he leído en toda mi vida.