The author observes: "All of Greece is absorbing and rewarding. There is hardly a rock or stream without a battle or myth or miracle or a peasant anecdote or a superstition; and talk and incident, nearly all of it odd or memorable, thicken round the traveller's path at every step." In 'Mani', one of the "two best travel books of the century", Patrick Leigh Fermor fully bears this out. His glorious fusion of scholarship, history and imagination is a joy to read.
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The author observes: "All of Greece is absorbing and rewarding. There is hardly a rock or stream without a battle or myth or miracle or a peasant anecdote or a superstition; and talk and incident, nearly all of it odd or memorable, thicken round the traveller's path at every step." In 'Mani', one of the "two best travel books of the century", Patrick Leigh Fermor fully bears this out. His glorious fusion of scholarship, history and imagination is a joy to read.
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Add this copy of Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese to cart. $80.60, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1984 by Penguin Books.
Fantastic book, as are all of Paddy Fermor's, detailing the rigors and utter delights of foot travel in a harsh and un"developed" landscape peopled by rural Greeks hospitable to the stranger and historically violent toward one another. Extraordinary landscape, encounters with persons, and ruminations on history and art.
martha d
Dec 6, 2012
A Travel Classic
"Mani" is far more than a travelogue. It is a classic book about a remote and fascinating area of Greece by one of Britain's best post-war writers. The Mani is an area within the southern Peloponneses. It is remote, difficult to reach and travel within, and has remained isolated since Byzantine and earlier times. Life within the Mani is being lived as it was hundreds of years ago. Myths, history, and poetry are preserve in the everyday. Fermor writes in brilliant prose based on historical and cultural knowledge , with the deep sympathy of one who loves Greece and the Greeks and who has lived among them.
Susan B
Nov 15, 2012
a great bedside table book
I found Fermor through a WSJ Weekend essay. The great thing about Alibris is you can find it, buy it for 99cents and, if it disappoints, discard it all in a matter of days. This book does not disappoint. A wonderful true adventure/travel story in the rugged interior of Greece when land phones were rare, and transportation by buses, donkey or foot stays surprisingly contemporary both in language and discernment. A few pages before lights out is like having a box of bon bons beside the bed. A small taste of a world lost to the relentless invasion of game shows and mobile apps is made bright again.