The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos (NYRB Classics)

One of the landmarks of travel literature is Patrick Leigh Fermor's three-volume account of his 1934 trek across Europe as a nineteen-year-old. To be sure, though, to characterize the books as "travel literature" may do them a disservice, both because they eclipse almost all other representatives of the genre and because they are much more than a travelogue. PLF mixes in history and ethnology in such an engaging and informative fashion that the books are sui generis. The first two volumes, which I have also reviewed on Amazon, are "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water". The second one ended with PLF at the Iron Gates, a gorge on the Danube River between Serbia and Rumania. In THE BROKEN ROAD, PLF resumes his journey through portions of Rumania and much of Bulgaria, crisscrossing that country three times. He travels mostly on foot, sometimes sleeping rough; sometimes staying with shepherds, gypsies, or farmers; sometimes with friends he makes along the way; and on a few occasions with the upper crust. One of the more memorable lodgings was at the "Savoi-Ritz" in Bucharest. When he came upon it, he thought it a small hotel, "about my level, in spite of its daunting name." It turned out to be a brothel and entertaining indeed is PLF's account of late-night, after-work dinner with the five girls of the establishment -- one from Bukovina, a Moldavian, a Transylvanian, a German from a town in the Carpathian passes, and a Gagauz from the Dobrudja ("I gazed at her with the reverence of an ornithologist at the glimpse of an Auckland Island merganser"). Another night was spent with six Bulgarian shepherds and four Greek fishermen in a cave along an isolated inlet of the Black Sea on the coast of Bulgaria. Against a crackling wood fire, PLF witnessed several soulful folk dances, fueled by the raki that PLF had carried in his rucksack. At the opposite end of the spectrum, while staying at the apartment of a German diplomat in Rumania PLF went to a dinner party for Artur Rubinstein, where the great pianist played Chopin after which there broke out "dancing and drinking at an uninhibited tempo". What helps make THE BROKEN ROAD and its two predecessors special is that PLF wrote them, contemplatively, forty to sixty years after the journey itself, with the benefit of the intervening years of life lessons and much scholarship. This gives him greater perspective as well as the opportunity to interlace the story of his travels with fascinating information about the history and the peoples of the places he visits. One small example, this one of the hatred between the Bulgars and the Byzantines: "The hatred is epitomized on either side by the act of one Byzantine emperor, Basil the Bulgar-slayer, who totally blinded a captured Bulgarian army of ten thousand men, leaving a single eye to each hundredth soldier so that the rest might grope their way home to the [Bulgarian] czar: a spectacle so atrocious that the czar, when the pathetic procession arrived, died of grief and shock." PLF's prose is rather baroque in its intricacies, and his vocabulary is prodigious. He is prone to elaborate lists and flights of fancy, both of which are evident in his account of when, while trudging along a railway, the Orient Express suddenly appears out of the darkness and whisks past him, setting him to thinking about "its freight of runaway lovers, cabaret girls, Knights of Malta, vamps, acrobats, smugglers, papal nuncios, private detectives, lecturers in the future of the novel, millionaires, arms' manufacturers, irrigation experts and spies." PLF worked on writing the third volume of his pan-European journey off and on between 1990 and his death in 2011, at age ninety-six. He never finished it. It ends mid-sentence, with the youthful PLF still in Bulgaria, about 120 miles short of his goal, which was Constantinople (as he preferred to call the city). As a point of biography, PLF spent several weeks in Istanbul and then embarked on a tour of the Greek Orthodox monasteries on the rugged peninsula of Mount Athos. During that excursion he maintained a detailed diary, the eighty pages of which are appended to THE BROKEN ROAD. It is entitled "Mount Athos", and it can be skipped. The contrast between it and THE BROKEN ROAD and its two predecessors is stark. As keen an observer as the youthful PLF was, the books written forty and more years later are so much richer and more engaging. They transcend travel literature; for me they are literature pure and simple, and they are among the highlights of my reading career.

Part 3 of the trilogy by acclaimed Travel writer, Patrick Leigh Fermor, of a journey on foot from the Netherlands to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1933-4 is a fantastic close to one of the best travel adventures of the last 100 years. Fermor flunked out of school in England, grew tired of constant and aimless partying and decided to strike out across Europe by foot. Financed by an allowance of an English Pound a week from his family, he took months gathering acquaintances and language facility as he went - mooching off of everyone he could on the way. Fermor's first book of the series, A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (New York Review Books Classics) , wasn't published until 1977, decades after the real events. Fermor relied on memory mostly, and some various diaries and manuscripts relating to the trip. The result was this masterpiece which I feel is the single best travel book of the 20th century. I'm not alone in that belief, by the way. Fermor's second book, published in 1986, wasn't as good for a variety of reason. Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics) This 3rd book was published after Fermor's death in 2011 and wasn't finished. However there were draft versions and variations that had been worked on by Fermor and it was almost finished, so don't think this is mostly non-Fermor. Fermor's biographer, Artemis Cooper Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure , and noted travel author Colin Thubron, successfully edited this book and it reads like vintage Fermor to the end. We get the benefit of an 18 year old starry-eyed wanderer with a glib tongue and a photographic memory superimposed on a much older and wiser author looking back through the years at people and places all too often destroyed in the coming WWII. And the journey is fantastic. A modern day Odysseus, Fermor immerses himself in the experience and as a solitary traveler finds himself out there mixing with royalty and thugs. Fermor shows a great depth of historical knowledge in the Balkans as well as facility with languages. And his descriptive prose puts you right into the scenes being described. I simply don't know enough superlatives to describe this. I think this 3rd book is actually closer to the first work of genius in this series and better than the second. Lately, we have found that many travel writers embellish or adjust or fabricate (read: lie) about their experiences. Chatwin, Morris, Kaczynsky and others have all admitted or been found to make up some of their "non-fiction". Fermor doesn't appear to suffer from this artificiality, as near as I can tell - not knowing the area nor the languages spoken there. This is an excellent book, entertaining, humorous, erudite, and just plain fun and adventurous. Why not 5 stars? The arrival in Constantinople was never fleshed out by Fermor. Still, I highly recommend it and also recommend you start with the first book and read them in order.

This volume was left unfinished and unedited by PLF, but it is just as well written and interesting as the previous two. And it’s almost a fitting end that his journey ends in ambiguity. The scene of him walking through the Bulgarian mountains with a stray dog, and then along the craggy Black Sea coast and venturing upon a group of Greek fisherman, are up there with the greatest and most memorable scenes of this whole trilogy. I’d recommend reading his other works next, which unfortunately contain less of a personal element.

If you've never heard of Patrick Leigh Fermor, or know only a bit, then please take note of his life-story! At 18-19 years old and just as Hitler was coming to power in Germany Paddy [or Leigh, both first-names were used], a youthful British adventurer set out on his own to walk from the Hook of Holland down along the Rhine then the Danube to his chosen destination: Constantinople [now Istanbul]. You might be interested to know "he made it". His tale is far more than an autobiography, because young Paddy never knew boredom; rather he delighted in virtually every person, scene, city, village, road-highway-or path, monument, vista and location to which his astounding mind and heart led him. He jotted down inspired thoughts and insights as he traveled through countries meeting strangers-turned friends who within five-years were swept-up in World War II [ 1939-1945]. A more penetrating and perceptive account of Middle Europe on the perilous brink of destruction and national reversals- of-fortune written by one who quite-literally walked through all that "about to fall victim to war" does not exist--except as recorded in three volumes written by Patrick Leigh Fermor. Yes! it is all laid-out for the worthy reader in his books published in London by John Murray Publishing Ltd. But be forewarned that the first two books, "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water" appeared on sales-shelves in the 1990's; and Paddy's full exciting and exquisitely told story has only been concluded by "The Broken Road" published posthumously in 2014 ! One properly ought to begin with "A Time of Gifts", move on to "Between the Woods and the Water", and now you have in 2014 the conclusion: "The Broken Road". Dear Reader do not miss these three meant to be absorbed in succession. You will love every vivid turn-of-thought--because Fermor-in-youth was a bold and strong-minded thinker, traveler, and even then a friend to those he met along the way; never allowing any man. woman, or fellow student, merchant, farmer or noble to remain but well-met ! Lastly, dear Reader, you will be overwhelmed by Fermor's expansive and comprehensive vocabulary reflected on every page ! Before I close this brief review, I must tell that these three books cover at least the following countries as Paddy Fermor walked-on in order: along the Rhine: Holland, Upper Germany, nigh France; led on by the Danube: Lower Germany, Austria, Hungary, Transylvania [Benat], Serbia at the Iron Gates, Bulgaria of the Great Balkans, Rumania [Wallachia-Moldavia, Regat], Bulgaria of the Black Sea, Turkey, Macedonia, and Greece. With Paddy Fermor and as his treasured guests you'll visit not only places and peoples but also times of history-in-the-making as you've never imagined possible; but through his eyes it's all real. By: James [Jim] B. Ritchie of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

I read all 3 volumes of Mr. Fermor’s travelogue and I loved this one the best. Most of the writing is from his diaries written at the time when he was 19. I learned more about his family and his reason to travel on such an arduous and adventurous trek . It’s as beautifully written and captures more than any other travel writer I’ve read from historic background, beauty of his surroundings and importantly the many and diverse people he befriends on his travels. I highly recommend reading this adventurous youth

Even in this posthumous work put together by his literary heirs Patrick Leigh Fermor soars as a stylist, travel writer, and a delightful companion to this reader. A master of English prose, a man with an eye for the telling detail, and a genial observer of other people, many in remote places, he returns us to another time when a young man (albeit one with a few checks sent from home) could travel across Europe on foot, mix easily with the locals, and convey a sense of wonder at the world. I am grateful to his editors for piecing together his notes. While this book might not rise to the high level of the two that preceded it, it is not a disappointment, it is a delight.

Patrick Leigh Fermor was a brilliant travel writer and a hero of the Second World War. His A Time of Gifts trilogy (A Time of Gifts, Between the Woods and the Water, and The Broken Road, is a narrative of his walking tour as an 18-year-old through Eastern Europe in the 1930s, a detailed, interesting, and adventurous view of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, a series of ancient cultures soon to be destroyed by the Nazis and the Communists. This series would be a great companion for Olivia Manning's wonderful Balkan Trilogy.

I was happy to read this final volume, #3, even if published posthumously in less than polished form. I count Patrick Leigh Fermor among my favorite writers ever, and this was a missing piece of his journey. What he experienced walking across 1933-34 Europe was just part of his extraordinary life story and makes one envy that time one could stay with a new family every night just by asking for hospitality. Along the way, new acquaintances began to pass him along to upscale friends in the next town, so he ended up staying with grand aristocratic families by the time he reached Hungary. His description of pre-war European life -- from the humble to the grand -- is especially poignant, because it was all swept away just a few years later. Fermor returned to this area during the war to train partisan fighters on behalf of the British military -- leading to more wonderful memoirs. This volume #3 covers Fermor's time in Romania, Bulgaria, Istanbul, and on legendary Mt. Athos. His literary and classical references are a tribute to British inter-war education and his facility with languages is a marvel. Best of all, there's a new word or literary reference to discover every few pages. Not as tight as his earlier volumes, which he was able to edit to completion, but a delight nonetheless.