FERMOR Patrick Leigh - Mani. Wanderings in the Peloponnese

Patrick Leigh Fermor was an extremely well-read man, as well as an adventurer, an aristocrat, a war hero with a poet's ear, a painter's eye, a gift for languages, a boundless curiosity about the world and an insatiable thirst for life. In 1933, he embarked on a journey on foot from London to Constantinople. For years he lived in Greece, and his home attracted the greatest writers of modern Europe. "Mani" is a record of a trek through the Peloponnese, a unique guide to an unknown Greece.

The southern part of the Peloponnese looks on the map like a freshly pulled, misshapen tooth, and the three peninsulas protruding from the south resemble decay-eaten roots. The central protuberance is formed by the Taigetus range. That's what Mani is.

My private invasion of Greece will include the least visited and most inaccessible areas for most travelers, because among their inhabitants one can find what I am looking for [...]. In most Greek highlanders, bare feet and patched clothing are accompanied by faces and postures familiar from portraits of 19th century generals, ambassadors and princes. -Patrick Leigh Fermor

Patrick Leigh Fermor in Britain and Greece is a man of legend, famous not only for his books, but also for his deeds of war. He is perhaps the last of a breed of travel writers who are surrounded by an aura of true bravery and courage. -Colin Thubron, The New York Review of Books

For Leigh Fermor, literature is music that works like incantations, and at the same time a treasure trove of knowledge accumulated over centuries, according to whose ordinances, wealth of ideas and thoughts one can live, just as clergymen live the Scriptures. -Anthony Lane, "The New Yorker"

Leigh Fermor is the most charming madman I have ever met. -Lawrence Durrell

Literary Notebook Publishing, Travel Series, 2013

Format: 210 x 135 mm, 360s.

BDB with a small minus - minor damage at the top of the spine, repaired.