Product Description

First published in 1942, Rebecca West's epic masterpiece is widely regarded as the most illuminating book to have been written on the former state of Yugoslavia. It is a work of enduring value that remains essential for anyone attempting to understand the enigmatic history of the Balkan states, and the continuing friction in this fractured area of Europe. This title is a new edition of a travel literature classic introduced by Geoff Dyer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17883 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 1200 pages

Review
"As a book about Yugoslavia it's a kind of metaphysical Lonely Planet that never requires updating." Geoff Dyer "It is hard to convey the flavour of a book so rich in observation, history, philosophy, political ideas and ironic humour." The Times "Impossible to put down, both timeless and of its time... a travel book and epic narrative history brimming with passion, anger, scholarship and intuition, hatred and love." Observer "Dame Rebecca, the finest reporter of her generation, saw everything." Sunday Telegraph"

Observer
"Impossible to put down, both timeless and of its time.

Sunday Telegraph
"Dame Rebecca, the finest reporter of her generation, saw everything."

Customer Reviews

What a fantastic book!
A middle-class englishwoman and her banker husband travel round Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Sounds dull, but it's actually one of the most engrossing books I have read for a long time - all 1200 pages of it. The digressions on the history of the Republic of Dubrovnik, Diocletian's palace in Split, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand etc are absolutely magical.

West has some odd ideas about religion and monarchy. She seems to be an Islamophobe and a Turkophobe, and I don't entirely like what she writes about Jews. She is an unashamed Serbophile in a way that is most unfashionable these days, and she has scant sympathy for anyone else's nationalism, but her heart and brain are undoubtedly in the right place.

Worth a read by anyone interested in the history of the Balkans, though not to be read uncritically.

A must read if your traveling in the Balkans
After reading some of the history of the Balkans, all other authors recommended this book, and after reading it I can see why. It is the format others try to obtain. She keeps the reader waiting for the next corner in not only her travels but in history. It puts into perspective todays turmoil.

The Greatest Travel Book Ever Written
This book is, without a doubt, the greatest travel book ever written. Encylopaedic in its depth and scope, it is the vastly readable account of Dame Rebecca West's pre-war journeys through the Balkans. But it is more than a mere travelogue--it says much about the human predicament in general. It is impossible to understand the current problems in the former Yugoslavia without this book.