Sir Laurens, whose life has encompassed African expeditions and years as a Japanese POW, recalls events-some joyful, some tragic-and in so doing provides the framework for an exploration into the human spirit.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
In 1991, five years before he died, South Africa-born writer and amateur ethnographer Sir Laurens van der Post took a long look at his life and the small details that resonated over time. Among the things he recalls in this luminous book of autobiography are a majestic French horse, the Blady of his title; the sound of the ocean as it breaks on the capes of Africa and South America; and a wondrous encounter with a meteor in the Kalahari Desert. This book, weaving natural and personal history, is full of animals, dreams, myths, the African desert, and Mediterranean sunlight. Every page brings a new pleasure.
From Publishers Weekly
In this rhapsodic, self-dramatizing spiritual autobiography which often verges on the mystical, famed explorer van der Post seeks a patternsee last sentence in his life's seemingly random events. His great love of horses, especially a black-and-tan mare named Blady, inspires flights of philosophical speculation on human relationship to nature, the soul's immortality and the unhealthy devaluation of the feminine in modern life. Hopping around in time and place from fighting the Japanese in Java during WW II to watching sunsets on the Kalahari desert, he contemplates his son's experience with terminal cancer and theorizes that the origins of disease reside in the soul. His friendships with Jung and with Jungian analysts fuel his ruminations on "the sickness of our time," defined here as a refusal to enlarge one's awareness. Seeking renewal, van der Post imaginatively enters the mythological realm of Zeus and Prometheus. Many transcendent moments experienced on his travels punctuate his quest. this point made in first sentence/right you are, as always. don't need, so I've cut.gs
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A View of Spain,
By
This review is from: About Blady: A Pattern Out Of Time (Paperback)
Laurens van der Post gives us glimpses into various parts of his life, and finally bears down on the subject of the title of this book, a mare called Blady, spotted in a field by a young horsewoman of Argentine origins in Spain, purchased on the spot, and trained and ridden by her against against the greatest rider in all of Spain. Van der Post writes the story with great affection for the for the young woman and her mare. Many insights are given into the complex interrealtions and customs of the Spanish, none more interesting than Laurens' reflections on the meaning and symbolism of the bullfight.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent choice,
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This review is from: About Blady: A Pattern Out Of Time (Paperback)
This book arrived in excellent condition - I am very pleased with this book. No marks, folds, writing - just perfect.
0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Van der Post giving us a good part of himself,
By A Customer
This review is from: About Blady: A Pattern Out Of Time (Paperback)
ABOUT BLADY is a touching book about life and death. It inspired this poem which I hope will suffice as a reveiw.HE DIED OF CANCER HE WAS 68 HE DIED OF CANCER HE WAS 36 HE DIED OF CANCER HE WAS 24 LATTER RAINS come sparking on a comet's tail out of control strike a silent blow to grow in him out of sight coming in visionary midnight dreams frightening misunderstood meaning clear in afterthought after ravaged body nears end of capability felt end of being Pain no pills can erase subdued by chords of Beethoven passages of Mozart Sunshine overshadowed by death clouds a peaceful finale echoes through stainglass windows to silence
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Although the story becomes specific only in Blady, it does not begin there. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little old one, last fence Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bird of the Wind, Grand National, Paco Goyoago, The Magic Mountain, Manley Hopkins, Professor Meier, The Times, Southern Cross New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Although the story becomes specific only in Blady, it does not begin there. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
little old one, last fence Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bird of the Wind, Grand National, Paco Goyoago, The Magic Mountain, Manley Hopkins, Professor Meier, The Times, Southern Cross New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 12
books:
See all 12 books this book cites
4
books
cite this book:
- The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann on page 38, page 39, and page 40
- The Waste Land and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics) by T.S. Eliot on page 16, and page 121
- The Waste Land (Norton Critical Editions) by T. S. Eliot on page 16, and page 121
- The Waste Land: A Facsimile and Transcript of the Original Drafts Including the Annotations of Ezra Pound by T. S. Eliot on page 16, and page 121
- Ancient Greece by Bird on page 130
See all 12 books this book cites
- Travelers' Tales: The Road Within: True Stories of Transformation by Sean O'Reilly on page 93, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- She Flies Without Wings: How Horses Touch a Woman's Soul by Mary D. Midkiff on page 121, and Back Matter
- Wild About Horses: Our Timeless Passion for the Horse by Lawrence Scanlan in Back Matter
- The Love of Nature and the End of the World: The Unspoken Dimensions of Environmental Concern by Shierry Weber Nicholsen in Back Matter
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