As they travel around the sea at the center of Western history, Eric Newby and his wife Wanda visit not only the better-known Mediterranean sights and cities but also venture into places where Westerners are few: Albania under Hoxha, the holy Muslim city of Fez, and a country about to disappear in civil war - the former Yugoslavia. Eric Newby entertains and enlightens as he follows in the footsteps of Cleopatra and St John, and waits for a meeting with Colonel Gaddafi. With his customary flair for description, he is equally at easy pondering King David's choice of Jerusalem as the site for a capital city or enjoying a meal cooked by one of France's finest chefs. His acute curiosity and encyclopedic knowledge combine to make absorbing reading, whether he is explaining the workings of a defunct Turkish harem or the contemporary Mafia. From antiquity to the present, Eric Newby's erudite, engaging tale is not a simple tour but a tour de force.
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A splendid book' -- Guardian
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Eric Newby is a serious travel essayist for serious travelers. A consummate pro. ON THE SHORES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, originally published in 1984, is his chronicle of a resolute journey around the circumference of the Mediterranean, an arduous tour of ancient cities, ruins and near ruins that would have surely daunted a lesser man. Beginning at his home in Tuscany, he shepherds the reader along to Naples, Venice, Montenegro, Albania, Mt. Olympus (in Greece), Istanbul, Turkey's Mediterranean shore (the Troad), Jerusalem, the Pyramids, Tobruk (in Libya), Tunisia, Fez (in Morocco), Gibraltar, Seville (in Spain), and Nice (on the Côte d' Azur). After 484 pages (in paperback) of relatively small print, I collapsed exhausted.
Newby has an exceptional eye for detail and history, which can provide either joy or torment to the armchair traveler. SHORES accomplishes both. He's at his very best when describing the Harem at Topkapi (in Istanbul), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (in Jerusalem), the nightmare (and somewhat comic) bus ride from Tripoli to Tunis, and the Moroccan city of Fez. His very worst had to be the chapter dedicated to Holy Week in Seville, a migraine-inducing and seemingly endless enumeration of processions, floats, statues and religious brotherhoods involved in the Roman Catholic celebration of this yearly festivity. Enough already, for cryin' out loud! (And I was born and raised Catholic, even!) The fact that Eric has an unfortunate penchant for constructing looooooong sentences, sometimes in excess of 100 words, doesn't help.
The biggest disappointments of this otherwise laudable book were two. First, because of conflict in the city, he didn't visit Beirut, Lebanon. Second, too infrequent mention was made of his long-suffering travel companion and wife, Wanda, who would occasionally contribute a pointed remark about the latest fine mess that husband Eric had gotten them into. I liked Wanda a lot.
I have only recently `discovered' Eric Newby and remain delighted to find another engaging travel-writer to read and collect, "Shores" is my third book, and there will be more. But ...
The author provides in his books deep historic references to his wanderings, sprinkled with humor and, usually, some sparkling wit from his wife Wanda who often brings Eric back to earth with a thump that produces empathetic chuckles in this reader. Despite the book being dedicated to her, I missed Wanda in this book - perhaps as so much of this trip takes place in the rather anti-feminine Muslim world she is kept at a more discreet distance. In addition to rather too much repetition in some of the historic details - although often interesting on the North shore - there was for me, rather more about the North African cultures than I needed. It is a part of the world I personally never warmed to, and other than a moving tribute and personal return to the WWII graves of Tobruk, the author never engaged my sympathy for the peoples of Libya or Morocco. In fact only Paul Theroux [[Pillars of Hercules]] has managed to bring out some of the qualities of these peoples and cultures that I did remember with affection, but Eric and Wanda had to bypass two of the areas that I held in most regard as both Beirut and Algeria were, once again, in murderous turmoil. He does provide several fascinating details of the Christian slavery of this region - often forgotten in today's world - that continued up to the 1820's.
But it is in the European countries, particularly a brief visit to the previously Arabic regions of Spain, that the author really held my interest, despite his often turgid and over-crafted sentences, he communicates a sense of historic place very strongly. Of their own adopted region around their modest Tuscany villa there is a charming and engaging portrait.
As the author wittily remarks, the shores of this sea are densely populated with the history of many peoples - a cast of billions like a Cecil B de Mille 1930 production he warns! Overall then, this is a book that can be enjoyed on several levels and one that rewards the reader's perseverance in the more difficult passages, and certainly one that I will reread.
The author provides in his books deep historic references to his wanderings, sprinkled with humor and, usually, some sparkling wit from his wife Wanda who often brings Eric back to earth with a thump that produces empathetic chuckles in this reader. Despite the book being dedicated to her, I missed Wanda in this book - perhaps as so much of this trip takes place in the rather anti-feminine Muslim world she is kept at a more discreet distance. In addition to rather too much repetition in some of the historic details - although often interesting on the North shore - there was for me, rather more about the North African cultures than I needed. It is a part of the world I personally never warmed to, and other than a moving tribute and personal return to the WWII graves of Tobruk, the author never engaged my sympathy for the peoples of Libya or Morocco. In fact only Paul Theroux [[Pillars of Hercules]] has managed to bring out some of the qualities of these peoples and cultures that I did remember with affection, but Eric and Wanda had to bypass two of the areas that I held in most regard as both Beirut and Algeria were, once again, in murderous turmoil. He does provide several fascinating details of the Christian slavery of this region - often forgotten in today's world - that continued up to the 1820's.
But it is in the European countries, particularly a brief visit to the previously Arabic regions of Spain, that the author really held my interest, despite his often turgid and over-crafted sentences, he communicates a sense of historic place very strongly. Of their own adopted region around their modest Tuscany villa there is a charming and engaging portrait.
As the author wittily remarks, the shores of this sea are densely populated with the history of many peoples - a cast of billions like a Cecil B de Mille 1930 production he warns! Overall then, this is a book that can be enjoyed on several levels and one that rewards the reader's perseverance in the more difficult passages, and certainly one that I will reread.
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First - I'm quite happy w/ the book itself but more importantly, it arrived in very good form from the seller - always something to hold your breath about til it arrives.
Good job.
Good job.
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