In The Steps Of The Master [Paperback]

H. V. Morton (Author), Richard John Neuhaus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002

Here, in the spirit of Bruce Feiler's beloved bestseller Walking the Bible, is a portrait of the Holy Land as a physical embodiment of faith. Dramatically conjuring the beauty of Israel's countryside, In the Steps of the Master also evokes the all-consuming passions and deep-rooted mysteries of Jerusalem—and while much has changed, as Morton says, the essential nature of the sites he visits has not.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Henry Vollam Morton was born in 1892 near Manchester, England. He became an international celebrity by scooping the world's press in the sensational discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in the early 1920s. His newfound fame subsequently led to a series of extraordinarily popular vignettes on English city and country life, which went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. He died in South Africa in 1979 at the age of eighty-six.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; First Edition edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306810816
• ISBN-13: 978-0306810817
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #693,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Throwing some light on the Holy Land, April 16, 2000

By 

Owen Hughes (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Steps of the Master (Paperback)

This is the only one of H. V. Morton's books I've read, although I own one or two others. I suppose I must be slow on the uptake or too busy reading other things, not to have read further. This book was five stars all the way. I've still got the taste of the dust in my mouth.

Being something of a neophyte in matters pertaining to modern day Israel or ancient Palestine, or vice versa, I was thrilled to find myself in the hands of a gifted travel writer on this first armchair journey to the Holy Land. Morton knows how to, how shall I say it, maintain a religious sense in his work without allowing the reader to detect just how religious (or irreligious) he is. It's quite clever. Anyway, there is much biblical reference, almost always referring to the geography through which we pass, or the local architecture. For instance, his description of the Temple fascinated me. I must say it gave me a hankering to go to that part of the world, which is partly what a good travel book ought to do, methinks. Otherwise, I just enjoyed the writing. Very rhythmic, fluid text which is easy to read and tends to sweep one along, almost inexorably. I really shall have to dig out my other Mortons (on the British Isles) and have a go at them. Great read if you can find it, which shouldn't be too hard: he was a very popular and widely published author in his day.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The more things change?, June 5, 2007

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In The Steps Of The Master (Paperback)

H.V. Morton joined the list of my favorite authors after just one reading of his "In Search of London." "In the Steps of the Master," Morton's 1934 record of "the thoughts and the experiences which come the way of a man as he travels through Palestine with the New Testament in his hands," has cemented his place on that list. "In the Steps..." is a wonderful piece of travel literature, and certainly repays reading, even given all that has changed in the nearly three-quarters of a century since it was first published.

I was fortunate to be able to make my first-ever trip to Israel last month, and so made a point to find and read "In the Steps..." before I left. I'm tempted to say now that things in the Holy Land may have changed more in the 73 years since this book was published than they had in the nearly two millennia since the time of Christ. Twenty-first century Jerusalem, in particular, is a very different place from the dusty settlement Morton describes. No one, I think would mistake "In the Steps..." as a particularly relevant guidebook today. And yet...

There are elements of the Holy Land that maybe never change, and most of the holy sites Morton visits -- certainly the more significant ones -- are still accessible to the modern pilgrim or curious tourist, and the shape of the land and the setting of Jerusalem or the Sea of Galilee remain as Morton describes them.

That, I think, is the real value of this book. Morton is an excellent travel writer, and anyone who appreciates well-crafted descriptive prose is in for a treat with (I'd venture, based on the two volumes of his I've read so far) most anything he's done. As I noted in my review of "In Search of London," Morton seems equally at home describing both the modern condition and the history of a place. Add to that, in this case, his facility with Scripture and his skill in pulling relevant details out of the Biblical narrative, and this becomes a great way to prepare for a trip and/or to assess what you've seen.

The several modern guidebooks about Jerusalem and Israel I read were good for details. But "In the Steps of the Master" was second only to the Bible itself in helping me prepare for the sense -- the spiritual impact -- of being in the land where Jesus walked.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In The Steps Of The Master by H.V. Morton, November 2, 2010

By 

Joan Campion (Fountain Hill, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: In The Steps Of The Master (Paperback)

Jerusalem Journal: Adventures in a Desert LandscapeIn the Lion's Mouth: Gisi Fleischmann & the Jewish Fight for SurvivalIsn't This Glorious!: The 15th, 19th, And 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiments at Gettysburg's Copse of Trees
It's amazing to read a book like H.V. Morton's "In The Steps Of the Master" when you have, at least to some extent, traveled in Morton's own steps. This gifted 20th century travel writer writes like a painter--you can see what he is writing about as clearly as if you were there too. His knowledge of the complex history of what many people call the Holy Land seems encyclopedic, and it seems he has visited all of the sites and taken you along. His encounters with the many peoples of the Palestine Mandate--for he wrote this book before the foundation of modern Israel-- are memorable. The people he hears from range from the Zionist who sees his people's salvation in tractors to the ultra-Orthodox Jew who trusts only in God. There are many non-Jews as well, memorably including a British police officer (and his English setter dog) who Morton meets in 100-degree heat in Jericho, well below sea level. Temperature or no, the officer plans to go shooting with his dog. Back home, tweeds were what one wore to go shooting; so tweeds it is here, too.
This is one of the funniest passages in the book, although its subject would have seen nothing funny about it. It helps one understand the British Empire a bit better; people who would not pass out while wearing tweed in a desert landscape are a hearty stock. Perhaps, since Britain's imperial heyday, they have weakened.
I have no trouble giving this five well-deserved stars.