Perseus in the Wind: A Life of Travel (The Freya Stark Collection) [Idioma Inglés] - Softcover

Stark, Freya

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1780762402 ISBN 13: 9781780762401

Verlag: Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Written just after the Second World War, Perseus in the Wind (named after the constellation) is perhaps the most personal, and haunting, of all Freya Stark's writings. She muses on the seasons, the effect light has on a landscape at a particular time of day, the smell of the earth after rain, Muslim saints, Indian temples, war and old age. Each chapter is devoted to a particular theme: happiness (simple pleasures, like her father's passion for the view from his cabin in Canada); education (to be able to command happiness, recognize beauty, value death, increase enjoyment); beauty (incongruous, flighty and elusive - a description of the stars, the burst of flowers in a park); death (a childhood awareness of the finality of time, the meaningfulness of the end); memory (the jewelled quality of literature, pleasure, love, an echo or a scent when aged by the passage of time)., For those who have loved her travel writing, Perseus in the Wind illuminates the motivations behind her journeys and the woman behind the traveller.

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Críticas

'Few writers have the capacity to do with words what Faberge could do with gems--to fashion them, without violating their quality. It is this extraordinary talent which sets Freya Stark apart from her fellow craftsman in the construction of books on travel.' - The Daily Telegraph 'Enterprising publisher Tauris continues its Freya Stark collection with her essays, Perseus in the Wind: A Life of Travel...her mantra is one of the best I've heard: "One can only really travel if one lets oneself go and takes what every place brings without trying to turn it into a healthy private pattern of one's own."' - Giles Foden, Conde Naste Traveller 'It was rare to leave her company without feeling that the world was somehow larger and more promising. Her life was something of a work of art - The books in which she recorded her journeys were seductively individual - Nomad and social lioness, public servant and private essayist, emotional victim and mythmaker.' - Colin Thubron, NY Times 'Freya Stark remains unexcelled as an interpreter of brief encounters in wild regions against the backdrop of history.' - The Observer 'One of the finest travel writers of our century.' - The New Yorker 'A Middle East traveler, an explorer and, above all, a writer, Freya Stark has, with an incomparably clear eye, looked toward the horizon of the past without ever losing sight of the present. Her books are route plans of a perceptive intelligence, traversing time and space with ease.' - Saudi Aramco World

Biografía del autor

Freya Stark (1893-1993), 'the poet of travel', was the doyenne of Middle East writers and one of the most courageous and adventurous female travellers in history. She explored Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and Southern Arabia, where she became the first western woman to journey through the Hadhramaut. Usually solo, she ventured to places few Europeans had ever been. She received the title of Dame and her many, now classic, books include Travels in the Near East, A Winter in Arabia, The Southern Gates of Arabia, Alexander's Path, Dust in the Lion's Paw, East is West and Valleys of the Assassins.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: Tauris Parke Paperbacks
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1780762402
• ISBN 13: 9781780762401
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 192