The Big Red Train Ride [Mass Market Paperback]

Eric Newby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1980

The only continuous land route between Western Europe and the Pacific coast of the USSR, the Trans-Siberian Railway covers nearly a 100 degrees of longitude, seven time zones and 5900 miles in a journey lasting 192 hours and 35 minutes. In 1977 Eric Newby set out with his wife, an official guide and a photographer to gather a wealth of irreverent and humorous detail about life in the USSR. Eric Newby has also written "When the Snow Comes, They Will Take You Away", "The World Atlas of Exploration", "Great Ascents" and many travel other travel books.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140052437
• ISBN-13: 978-0140052435
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,039,817 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fellow travelers, May 16, 2011

By 

John the Reader "John" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Big Red Train Ride (Picador Books) (Paperback)

One reviewer suggests that the reader would want to just pick up and go after reading Eric and Wanda Newby's account of their ride through Russia on the Big Red Train.

It certainly did not have that affect on this reviewer, even if by reading it I did become a `fellow traveler' for a while. Instead it developed a growing sense of sheer relief that never again would one have to try, and usually fail, to contain those towering rages of sheer frustration and the resulting bad manners that the Russia of this trip and time created in this visitor.

Now mostly passed and gone, like one of Newby's Siberian stations with the attendant Station Mistress overseeing departures at the full attention, that Russia was as full of obstructions and stupidities as this book is full of interesting facts, apt and forbidden photographs and sparkling descriptions. Showing far more toleration than we could ever have managed and using his wit as a rapier sharp foil to fight off visits to wire factories, to parry multiple obstructions and carve up inedible meals Eric Newby passed through a Russia that is also now mostly and thankfully past.

His book's dedication is a doubled-edged plea from the author for empathy ... to the Peoples of Siberia who have to live there.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From Rossiya with Love, April 15, 2001

By 

Bruce MacMillan (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Big Red Train Ride (Mass Market Paperback)

Another adventure with the Newbys find Eric and Wanda hurtling through Brezhnev's Russia on the famous Trans-Siberian railway. From collective farms to asylums, the Newby's take you along with them on their tour.

Part endurance challenge, part history lesson the book does suffer in part by capturing Russia at its worst: food shortages, restricted travel, stern officials and windows that won't open! But the Newby's accept it all with relatively good humour and like all their adventures, they manage to find lots of interesting characters along the route. I've always been able to think of lots of reasons NOT to visit Siberia, the trans-siberian train ride might have just given me one!