Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
NYRB Classics (2006), Paperback, 280 pages
Description
In Roumeli, the companion volume to Mani, Patrick Leigh Fermor explores Northern Greece. He travels among Sarakatsan shepherds, the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, among itinerant pedlars and beggars, and even tracks down at Missolonghi a pair of Byron's slippers. The vivid descriptions of the people, traditions and landscape are imbued with an intimate understanding of Greece and Greek history.
Media reviews
Roumeli is not a beginning and middle and end book, but a series of pictures loosely related, mainly placed in Roumeli, in the north of Greece. Its unity, however, is not geographic so much as psychological. It deals with secluded ways and people—communities but not minglers—people who either
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by the necessities of their crafts or the strength of their traditions have kept to their own stream, side by side but not deeply affected by the changes around them….Placed as we are at probably the most sudden turn in history, any writing that deals with what has so short a time of survival ahead adds, as it were, a museum interest to its own intrinsic qualities. These pictures of Greece are things that a coming generation will look for in vain among the realities of their day. Show Less
Roumeli describes Patrick Leigh Fermor’s wanderings in and around this mysterious and yet very real region. He takes us with him among Sarakatsan shepherds, to the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, and on a mission to track down a pair of Byron’s slippers at Missolonghi.
User reviews
LibraryThing member teaperson
When Fermor sticks to his personal observations of places, this book can be fascinating. When he digresses off into philology and generalizations about Greek culture, he bored me. I had a very high expectation after reading "A Time of Gifts", and those expectations were dashed. Still, if you want
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to know how to curse in the made-up dialect of early 20th-century Greek beggars, this is probably the only book you need to read. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
The concept of "Northern Greece" is elastic enough to stretch from Crete to Honduras in this second set of virtuoso, quasi-random ramblings about Greece and the Greeks from PLF. As we might expect, he draws on his vast and diverse store of knowledge of two and a half millennia of Greek history and
I loved the involved and rather pointless tale of Byron's slippers, and had fun with the Greek version of thieves' cant. I found his tendentious speculations on "Roumioi vs. Hellenes" a bit much (although I did catch myself trying to fit some of my Greek acquaintances into his categories...). The best bit was definitely the section on mountain monasteries, though. I almost got as far as looking them up on the map, but I suspect that this is the sort of travel best done from an armchair. Real life with its buses and car parks and admission charges would spoil the whole thing.
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culture to wander off into strange and wonderful digressions, either fascinating or tedious according to how mellow you are when you read them. I loved the involved and rather pointless tale of Byron's slippers, and had fun with the Greek version of thieves' cant. I found his tendentious speculations on "Roumioi vs. Hellenes" a bit much (although I did catch myself trying to fit some of my Greek acquaintances into his categories...). The best bit was definitely the section on mountain monasteries, though. I almost got as far as looking them up on the map, but I suspect that this is the sort of travel best done from an armchair. Real life with its buses and car parks and admission charges would spoil the whole thing.
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LibraryThing member varielle
Inveterate traveler and Grecophile, Patrick Leigh Fermor, relates his minute examination of the less trod areas of northern Greece. The period of these travels and observations were post WWII until the early 1960s. His delightful narrative portrays the changing face of Greece and the disappearance
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of the nomadic way of life in these remote areas. He touches on every facet of life from marriage and courtship, to war and food, traditions and superstitions.This is a wonderful peek at a vanished world. The erudite Mr. Fermor doesn't stint with the etymology, but if you are not a student of the classics, bear with him and it will be worth your while. Show Less
LibraryThing member overthemoon
A varied collection of travel experiences and ponderings that have in common their sense of place, cobbled together into a book that varies in style and interest. I enjoyed the account of the wedding with the shepherds, the search for Byron's shoes, the meeting with the soldier and partaking of a
These times have passed: not to be used as a guidebook.
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scrumptious roast leg of lamb, the visits to the Meteora monasteries, and most of all the short chapter included at the end on the Sounds of Greece, a paean to the whole country and beyond, as it mentions Constantinople, Cappadocia, Cyprus and Sicily. I just gape and feel humbled by Leigh-Fermor's knowledge and command of the English language (as well as of Greek).These times have passed: not to be used as a guidebook.
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LibraryThing member JBreedlove
Certainly not PLF's best. A lot of lists and for some reason a focus on a historic begging culture that did have a good long paragraph on wandering to the far orthodox east. The shepherd wedding, his wandering through the monasteries in the mountains, and his crossing of Lord Byron's trails in
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Greece were interesting, but it was certainly no "Time of Gifts". Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1966
Physical description
280 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
159017187X / 9781590171875