Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics)
Label : NYRB Classics
Publisher : NYRB Classics
Studio : NYRB Classics
The journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor began in 1933 at the age of eighteen—to cross Europe on foot with an ‘emergency’ allowance of a pound a day—proved so rich in experiences that when much later he sat down to describe them, they overflowed into more than one volume. Undertaken as the storms of war gathered, and providing a context for unfolding events in Central Europe, this journey has captivated generations. Between the Woods and the Water has won as many prestigious awards as its predecessor.
The opening of Between the Woods and the Water finds Leigh Fermor crossing the Danube, at the moment where his first volume—A Time of Gifts—left off. He takes the reader with him downriver to Budapest, then on horseback across the Great Hungarian Plain and over the Rumanian border into Transylvania. Remote castles, mountain villages, monasteries and towering ranges that are the haunt of bears, wolves, eagles, gypsies and a variety of sects are all savored in the approach to the Iron Gates dividing the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans where, for now, the account ends.
Not sure it's a "Classic" (2008-11-17)
I was not able to get through this book, so four stars constitutes a "pass" from me.
Written more than 50 years after the walking tour described, this book is really a literary opus and not a travel account laced with some history and humor in the vein of, say, Bill Bryson.
I sound as if I'm panning the book, but I'm really saying it's not what I expected. Please read other reviews to see if the prose style is something that would interest you.
Truly a classic. (2007-10-17)
This book and its sequel, "Between the Woods and the Water," is truly a classic of the personal odyssey genre. Together they are the report by the English author of a diary he wrote between the ages of 19 and 22 while he walked from Holland to Istanbul. But he writes his report after a lengthy career in military service and, among other things, in journalism. The result combines the enthusiasm of a young student with the measured and spare prose of a seasoned and skilled veteran. The author as student is amazingly well schooled, even though thrown out of his public school. His reflections on what he sees are both erudite and almost poetic. (Read, e.g., the chapter, Prague Under Snow.) They don't serve as a normal travel guide, but they'll introduce you to the lands he traverses in a way that will make your own visit unusually well informed.
Gar nichts! (2007-04-07)
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!
Reading trumps experience (2006-12-14)
`Between the Woods and the Water' is a delightful travelogue, even though the sites and sounds are long gone. Fermor paints a picture of the life every young man wants to lead - well-funded itinerant travel, nearly effortless sociability, and a seemingly endless nightlife. This is the ultimate "Wish You Were Here" card, well worth the read for anyone interested in travel, history, and tales of pre-war social frivolity in Eastern Europe.
The narrative structure took me by surprise. Almost every region receives a minor academic treatment prior to Fermor's personal tales: history, language, architecture, nature, fun and games, repeat. I found myself skimming past descriptions of birds and trees, but fascinated by the author's insights into the interplay of geography, language development, and regional history. And, of course, it is impossible not to be won over by the author's late nights, fleeting loves, and brief stays with forgotten royalty.
My father often told me that `On the Road' had a profound effect on him as a youth. `Between the Woods and the Water' has a similar effect on me, only later in life. After the reading the story I was offered a brief trip to Hungary which I could not pass up. Far from Fermor's experience, I was greeted with mindless business meetings, post-communism industrial architecture, a robbery, and small-scale street riots. In the end, my disappointment with reality deepened my appreciation of the book - a memorializing tale of a geography and way of life that no longer exists.
Between the Woods and the Water (2006-11-10)
This is the continuation of, "A Time of Gifts." The English youth continues his walk across Europe to Constantinople. He picks up now in Austria, on to Hungary following the Danube valley. I wanted to quit reading this - page after page of allusions to east European history from Roman and pre-Roman times, Hungarian geography, reflections on Slavic languages. Esoterics I cannot appreciate. Still, they lured me and challenged me. These are places and these are people - Magyars and Gypsies - we seldom find in writing. We are introduced just as an era is about to end and everything is to change. It can be a book to go to bed with.