A Time of Gifts: Walking to Constantinople - A Journey of Discovery

GILLON Francesca: A mon avis il s'agit d'un angle mort de la littérature. Patrick Leigh Fremor a suivi l'exemple donné par Laurie Lee.

France on Sep 13, 2023

Sinbad: This is a mixed bag. Some passages and pages are 5 star; Fermor uses words in a way I'd never before read with many brilliant descriptions that are completely original. And there is an interesting enough adventure that underlies his journey.

But, the story itself often suffers from Fermor's habit of veering off into lengthy, dull, over-written descriptions. Around the 100-page mark, I almost gave up, as he derails the narrative for a long-winded and boring description of architecture.

I kept going, but found myself skipping over some sections. I suspect that if it were written today, an editor would cut about a quarter of this book. But as it's considered 'a classic', no publisher would dare.

Fermor is at his best when he's drinking with the farmers and foresters of some local inn, or sleeping in a barn. If the book was shortened to keep the narrative of the journey on track, I think it would be stronger for it.

If I could, I would award it 3.5 stars, but because there are some really excellent passages, I'll go to 4, rather than 3.

Germany on Sep 11, 2023

Neasa MacErlean: This is one of the great European books — told by the right man in the wrong place, the 19-year old author as he crosses Germany (and other countries) in 1933 and 1934. Patrick Leigh Fermor is one of those people who can see the beauty in everything (nature, cities, towns, people, ideas, poetry...), and the patterns which turn apparent randomness into structure and meaning. The teenager also has an openness and a tolerance which makes him a great writer. So he meets many young men of his own age in Germany which have joined the Nazi's SA, and he manages to talk with them and hear their point of view. One of them, with whom Leigh Fermor stayed overnight, was a 'Kommi' until the year before but as soon as he saw Hitler he knew that Adolf was the man. And, he says, there were many, many others like him who also joined the Nazis with joy and eagerness. He also writes about the gypsies, the beautiful Hungarians, the changing languages, the castles, the rough hostels, the smugglers, the loners, the farmers, the women (as well as the men), the trans-European love of Homer and Shakespeare...It sounds as alive as the day it was written. And it is so beautifully written that you would be...

United Kingdom on Feb 03, 2023

The Garden Interior: What would you do if you were a bright and sensitive 18-year-old Englishman, a boy really, whose parents just had a very messy separation and, though very intelligent, you had not done very well at any of your schools? And life seemed pointless and depressing? Why, walk across Europe to Constantinople naturally, and write three marvelous best-sellers about the journey while you were about it. And, oh yes, let’s say the year is 1933 and all Europe is convulsed politically by a life-or-death struggle between communism and fascism, and the Nazis are just coming into ruthless and total power in Germany. That would make it much more interesting. You would want to put a copy of The Oxford Book of English Verse and Horace’s Odes in your rucksack for company, of course, and you would want your parents to give you one pound a week for spending money, that would be more than enough.

And that is what these three amazing books are about. Fermor is an unusually keen observer, and his vivaciousness and immensely likeable personality combine with his brilliant observational power to create this compelling personal odyssey. The first volume carries Fermor from the Hook of Holland...

United States on Feb 18, 2015

Jeremy Walton: I bought this remarkable travelogue as a Christmas present for my son-in-law, who enjoyed it so much that he recommended I read it. It's an account of the adventures of a young man as he walks across Europe in the early 1930's from the Hook of Holland as far as the Czechoslovakia-Hungary border (subsequent volumes  Between the Woods and the Water  and  The Broken Road  continue his journey on to Constantinople). The author has a keen eye for details, and his memories of some of them have been reinforced by the diary he kept on the trip. But the eye is worthless without the gift of telling. Look at this:

"A rival pallor was spreading at the other end of the sky, and very fast. Behind a flutter of hills a rim of blood-red lunar segment was rising. It expanded to its full diameter and then dwindled; and when the circumference was complete a tremendous crimson moon was casting loose. It changed to orange and then to yellow as it climbed and diminished until all the colour had ebbed away and left it to soar with the aloof and airy effulgence of sliver. [...] While the light was seeking out more and more liquid surfaces for reflection, the sky, where the moon...

United Kingdom on Jul 16, 2014

Stephen N. Greenleaf: In December 1933, a young Brit picked up a freighter to Holland from London to begin a walk across Europe to Constantinople (Istanbul). He'd knocked about in school, never quite fitting into to the routine, although clever and widely read. He held no express goal for this journey except to complete it. After a brief stint traversing Holland, he crossed into Germany and began trekking up the Rhine Valley. After achieving southern Germany, he turned east, picking up the Danube, following the river’s course into Czechoslovakia. He concludes this portion of his journey at a bridge crossing from Czechoslovakia into Hungary. It will take him until January 1935 to reach his goal of Constantinople and a lifetime to complete the three volumes that recount his journey. The final installment, The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos won’t be published in the U.S. until March 2014.

Three traits make this book so impressive. The journey across Europe, poised roughly midway between its two great 20th century cataclysms, puts the reader in a time machine with young “Paddy”. Fermor begins his youthful journey in the year that Hitler came to power, and he encounters Brown...

United States on Jan 08, 2014

J. Nichols: This is the first installment of an epic journey undertaken by a very young man who by December 1933 was finding himself at the end of his tether. Expelled from his public school for dalliance with a grocer's daughter, not sure (having passed School Cert. at a London crammers) he wanted the experience of Sandhurst and a military career, he conceived the mad plan of walking across Europe to Constantinople on a shoestring. Basically it was to be up the Rhine and down the Danube.

A word about the title which is a little obscure for a travelogue, however unusual and distinguished. It is taken from a line of poetry by Louis MacNeice and in my understanding honours the people who were so kind and generous to him along the way. One must remember he was not yet nineteen when he first set out and his youth, good looks and sense of humour charmed very nearly all he met and he certainly displayed a supreme ability to get along with just about anybody.

"Si jeunesse savait, si vieillesse pouvait".... Sixteenth century Henri Estienne who first coined this oft-repeated phrase was nicely side-stepped by PLF. Here is an odyssey seen through the eyes of a most intelligent and curious...

United Kingdom on Jan 27, 2013