Phoenix: The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men [Paperback]

Robert Byron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2001 | Series: Phoenix Press

At only 22 years of age, the author of the acclaimed Road to Oxiana traveled with his friends for the first time to Mount Athos in Greece. The eye-opening visit inspired a classic appraisal of its treasures and men--one that immediately established Byron as a major new talent. A deep love for Byzantine civilization and reverence for antiquity glow from every page. "It is a volume that will bear reading again and again"--Daily Telegraph.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix Press (June 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1842122088
• ISBN-13: 978-1842122082
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #631,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest of his generation, May 17, 2004

By 

Dan Kostopulos (Little Rock, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phoenix: The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men (Paperback)

A beautiful and tender book about one the most remote places in a country overcome by mass tourism. Byron's enthusiasm and wit leaps off the page. A contemporary of Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, John Betjeman and others of the so-called Brideshead Generation, Byron was, I think, the greatest talent of the lot because of his passinate conviction that is unobscured by the angst-ridden,boring Catholic fogeyism of the others. Byron's assertion that it is in the Byzantine empire where Hellenic culture reaches its high-point (not in 5th-century Athens)is, in my opinion, correct. I'll take the serene interior of an Orthodox church over the enigmatic Parthenon anytime.

3.0 out of 5 stars The Station, Athos: Treasures and Men, August 23, 2011

By 

L. Page (Sarasota, FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phoenix: The Station: Athos: Treasures and Men (Paperback)

The book was published in the late 1920s so the language is different but once I was used to it I found it to be interesting. In researching the location I found some videos from a realtively recent piece by the CBS program "60 minutes". That helped to set the mood, scene and give it more of a sense of reality. Book is well written and it is a shame the author did not live longer. This book was chosen for a club read and did provide some interesting discussion. The treasures the monks guard were later threatened by Hitler but he never did carry out his plan of looting the monasteries.