Journey to the East [Paperback]

Le Corbusier (Author), Ivan Žaknic (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 2007

Ivan Zaknic, editor and translator, is Professor of Architecture at Lehigh University and Visiting Fellow at Princeton University.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-four-year-old Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret) kept a travel diary as he roamed central and Eastern Europe, visiting ancient monuments and soaking up native architecture. His journal is a blend of overripe, lyrical prose, incisive impressions and thoughts on architecture and landscape. His trips to the Parthenon and Mount Athos, which triggered his decision to become an architect, make intense reading. He writes movingly of Anatolian vistas that express the "lofty, poetic Turkish soul" and dubs the traditional Turkish wooden house "an architectural masterpiece." Even more revealingly, this neoclassical innovator admires Rumanian peasant houses for their dazzling white stucco and adaptation of classical elements. The first book Le Corbusier wrote, Journey was published posthumously in France in 1966. This first English translation is most welcome.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Le Corbusier was one of the greatest architects of the 20th century, if not the greatest in terms of influence and fecundity. This is the first book he ever wrote, never before published in English and only partially published in French in 1966, long after it was written in 1911. The translation, by an authority on the architect, is marvelously direct and straightforward, conveying the strength and poeticism of the original. The book records the young architect's vivid impressions on his first "Grand Tour"not of London, Paris, and Vienna, as one might expect, but of Dresden, Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Brindisi, Pompeii, and, finally, Athens, where before the aura of the Parthenon he became enthralled as an architect. A thrilling visual and verbal document of early modern architecture. Peter Kaufman, Suffolk Community Coll. Lib., Selden, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (November 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262622106
• ISBN-13: 978-0262622103
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Le Corbusier's Eastern Influence, December 13, 2009

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This review is from: Journey to the East (Paperback)

Too many of Le Corbusier's books have too much text and too little of his drawings. I wanted this book to see how he captured his trip to the East which influenced him way more than the west is willing to admit. Never forget that every fishing village of Asia has its houses atop 'pilotis.' It was disappointing. Its more about his trip to west Asia - Islamic architecture, and not really 'east.'