Massive massive game changing book and much respect to Rebecca West because the research and detail that must have gone into that book just must have been eye-wateringly massive! Being pretty ignorant of the history of the South Slavs and having read many times about West's book in articles about the Yugoslavian wars of the nineties, I read it over the course of several days at that cafe. 6 stars. AbeBooks.com: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Penguin Classics) (9780143104902) by West, Rebecca and a great selection of similar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at great prices. Start by marking “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Part travelogue, part history, part love letter on a thousand-page scale, Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a genre-bending masterwork written in elegant prose. Could just be my interpretation but the book was split into chapters and there were 2 dedicated to Serbia and older Serbia. Having said all that I would be lying if I said that I had read all that there was to read about the wars that had happened in the past in that area from the Serbian side, if honest, I don’t think I had read anything from that angle at all, so to hear about some of the Turkish atrocities and the impact of circa 500 years of Turkish rule in that area from “the other side” although written by a diplomatic English lady, was quite eye opening. Browse Recommendations; Choice Awards; Genres; Giveaways; New Releases She was travelling with a Serbian Jewish dude so that may have influenced her slightly in places. Rebecca West is starting to seriously suffocate me on Serbian history and I think I better stop. If you know Charlotte Mason "spreading a living feast " and ever wondered what it would look like for students who have tasted it, Rebecca West is the final product of it. A must read for those interested in the Balkans. I’m married to a lovely Bosnian lady so this was a huge magnifying glass for me into her people and what I saw frightened me and yet had me in awe in places. Disproving the popular thought that primitive life was simple, …. It is one of the great books of the 20th century, a magnum opus. There's a mantra that real writers know but wannabe writers don’t. A few years ago I read The Return of the Soldier, the first novel of Rebecca West, the pen name of Cicely Isabel Fairfield.I quite liked it, but not nearly enough to pursue the author any further. I imagine this book and I will be together on and off for some months, like a Proust project. However, it was one of the finest books I have ever read. A must read for those interested in the Balkans. Another epic book on the Balkans. Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity, Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. Also, at the beginning of each book are references to chapters that appear in the book. Slavs are such a tall, strong, beautiful race of people, it’s just a shame that religion divided them into the fractions Yugoslavia was split into after the war and the factions it was split into before the forming of that “south Slav” nature. They spend several months investigating Croatia, Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Old Serbia (Kossovo) and Montenegro, mostly in the company of a Serbian Jewish poet named Constantine and, for a time, his quite unpleasant German wi. Jan 29, 2018 - Black Lamb and Grey Falcon book. But earlier this year, on the recommendation of another blogger, I bought Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, one of her later books. But from everything I've heard, I very much look forward to it. Tags: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Croatia, Friday Reads, GoodReads, Rebecca West, Yugoslavia | Reblog (0) Comments. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia (One Volume edition) by Cicely Isabel West, Rebecca Pseud.) She reviewed books for, “Only part of us is sane: only part of us loves pleasure and the longer day of happiness, wants to live to our nineties and die in peace, in a house that we built, that shall shelter those who come after us. This book is as much of a battleground as the Balkans. Another epic book on the Balkans. I have been reading it at the approximate rate of 5 pages a day, with some breaks, since July 22, 2019. Around one million Armenians were killed, and the survivors were scattered across the world.…, The Wondrous and Tragic Life of Ivan and Ivana, Born in Guadeloupe, Ivan and Ivana are twins with a bond so strong they become afraid of their feelings for one another. What a woman. It's beautifully written, it's funny, it's a travel book and a memoir from a time and place on the other side of an abyss. ‎Written on the brink of World War II, Rebecca West's classic examination of the history, people, and politics of Yugoslavia illuminates a region that is still a focus of international concern. Cicely Isabel Fairfield, known by her pen name Rebecca West, or Dame Rebecca West, DBE was an English author, journalist, literary critic, and travel writer. A brilliant and versatile novelist, critic, essayist, and political commentator, West's greatest literary achievement is perhaps her travel diary, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey through Yugoslavia (1942). More Books by Rebecca West & Christopher Hitchens See All. However, some of her claims/ views are either dated (she was writing in the 1930s and early 1940s just as WWII was preparing itself and getting underway) or downright wrong-headed. You have a sense of foreboding reading this because you have the benefit(? There's a wonderful intro by Christopher Hitchens in the Penguin edition (which I don't have), but you can get said intro free from Kindle if you order the sample of the book. Rebecca went to Yugoslavia in the interwar period and wrote this book. ― Rebecca West, quote from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon “He is in his late sixties, but has the charm of extreme youth, for he comes to a pleasure and hails it happily for what it is without any bitterness accumulated from past disappointments, and he believes that any moment the whole process of life may make a slight switch-over and that everything will be agreeable for ever. I was aware of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon but not of her fiction. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon Brilliant book. What comes out to me again and again in the book is what seems to be the natural call to violence and power and strength that sits at the heart of the Slavic character. When their mother sends them off to live with their father in Mali they begin t…, Omnibus 1: Gitanjali/The Post Office/Creative Unity/Hungry Stones & Other Stories/Gora/My Boyhood Days, The Rabindranath Tagore Omnibus I brings together six of Tagore's acclaimed works. Over the last many years I have attempted to read this book three times. Rebecca West (1892-1983) was a novelist, biographer, journalist, and critic. Although I don't agree with all her opinions, and some of her flights of fancy verge on the tedious, she nevertheless su. Not only did she give me angles on an area that I had thought I had understood but wrote it all in such a beautifully poetic manner. That cannot help but inspire respect, though if you agree with everything she says in this book I'll start thinking you are her clone. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Around the same time, it also became increasingly clear to many Christian intellectuals on both sides of…, The Bridge on the Drina (Bosnian Trilogy, #1). The scope of this book is amazing. It still is fat and plain but is at least occasionally enjoyed on my shelf. ", In placing 5 stars on Dame Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon I am giving her credit for writing a book better than it could have been intented. Her book makes many things clear. I am not saying she was educated a la Charlotte Mason, but her studies anxiously were filled with living books as throughout this book she makes connections from all her reading and without effort explain how history has shaped the c. This was such a good read. I think I only bought this book because it looked fat, plain and unappreciated on the bookshop shelf. Fairfield and B/W Illus; Map on End Papers | Jan 1, 1958 Hardcover 10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within 48 … (2) She, This was such a good read. January 30th 2007 I have been reading it at the approximate rate of 5 pages a day, with some breaks, since July 22, 2019. The comments to this entry are closed. Add to basket. It was given to me as a gift and I was intimidated by the heft. She published eight novels in addition to her masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, for which she made several trips to the Balkans.Following World War II, she also published two books on the relation of the individual to the state, called The Meaning of Treason and A Train of Powder. Más libros de Rebecca West & Christopher Hitchens Ver todo. For example, she greatly admires the South Slavs, particularly the Serbs, because they drove the Turks out of their country after over 500 years of Turkish rule. I have lost count how many times I had scribbled “wow – beautifully written Rebecca” on the sides of the text. Cart All. Be the first to ask a question about Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are not makers of history. Wells, and later married banker Henry Maxwell Andrews, continuing to write, and publish, until she died in London at age ninety. I read this book for months (I believe I started it in July). I am now on page 588, halfway through the book. As a Muslim myself the one qualm that I had with the book was what I perceived to be a very pro-Serbian angle to it. She sets Byzantium as her standard for judging "civilization" and is attracted to Orthodox Catholicism. I guess it’s something I occasionally ask my 2 young boys to tap into when they are sparring in boxing. I finished today with the feeling of having an immense burden lifted from my shoulders and a sense of wonder at what Rebecca West achieved. Rebecca West (1892-1983) was a novelist, biographer, journalist, and critic. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. The book isn’t really a travel book as you would imagine but for me this covered a journey through the psyche of the Slavic people – a mind map of them if you will. I have no idea how I will write a review of it but someday soon I will try. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West, 9781841957876, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. As such it is a monument to the lost world that was pre-WWII Yugoslavia. Read 310 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Her fondness for assigning the most abstract and poetic meaning to anything from the weather to the expression of a nearly starving local can be maddening. It is an essential reference tool for stud…, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t: Why That Is And What You Can Do About It, Great Catastrophe: Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide, The destruction of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 was the greatest atrocity of World War I. 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