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Bruce Chatwin

In Patagonia (Penguin Classics) Paperback – March 1, 2003

by Bruce Chatwin (Author), Nicholas Shakespeare (Introduction)

739 ratings

Part of: Vintage Voyages (9 books)

in Argentinian History

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The masterpiece of travel writing that revolutionized the genre and made its author famous overnight

An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth”—that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome—in search of almost-forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Print length

240 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Classics
Publication date

March 1, 2003
Dimensions

0.6 x 5 x 7.7 inches
ISBN-10

9780142437193
ISBN-13

978-0142437193
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A book to stand on the shelf with Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, and Paul Theroux.” —The New York Times Book Review“Bruce Chatwin joins the ranks of the great British travel writers with In Patagonia.” —The Washington Post

About the Author

Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989) was the author of In Patagonia, The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, The Songlines, and Utz. His other books are What Am I Doing Here and Anatomy of Restlessness, posthumous anthologies of shorter works, and Far Journeys, a collection of his photographs that also includes selections from his travel notebooks.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0142437190
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (March 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780142437193
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0142437193
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.6 x 5 x 7.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #24,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Argentinian History
- #31 in Travel Writing Reference
- #78 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

Customer Reviews:
739 ratings

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Bruce Chatwin

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Bruce Chatwin reinvented British travel writing with his first book, In Patagonia, and followed it with many travel books and novels, each unique and extraordinary. He died in 1989.

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5 star		52%
4 star		25%
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2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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Jo Ann Simpson

More poetry than travelogue

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 22, 2020

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I bought this book to get a sense of Patagonia before a planned trip. Frankly, reading it was a slog. At places the sense of continuity from chapter to chapter existed, but not always. I found myself wanting more details about the area, a la Rick Steves. Now, having taken the trip to this incredibly beautiful land, I have re-read the book. On my trip, I learned most of the omitted details, so this time I found what was written made more sense. Like reading Shakespeare or Milton is enriched by a working knowledge of the Bible, having a personal knowledge of Patagonia makes Chatwin's stories more realistic. For example, Chatwin devotes several pages to the story of Jemmy Button. He wrote that Jemmy appeared in his native attire at an event in Great Britain and cleared the room. Such a description only makes sense if you know that Jemmy's native attire was his birthday suit. Similar lack of details occurs throughout the book. Like poetry requires the reader to bring as much knowledge to the language as possible, so this book requires a knowledge of Patagonia to be fully appreciated.

14 people found this helpful

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Steven J. Kalish

If you are sensitive to antisemitism skip this

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 7, 2022

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I learned more about the author than about Patagonia

One person found this helpful

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George W.

Reminiscent of "On the Road" and "Blue Highways"

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 16, 2017

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When Bruce Chatwin’s classic and offbeat travel narrative “In Patagonia” first appeared in 1977, many readers didn’t know what to think of it. Its publication coincided with my sophomore year at seminary and—boggled down with theological tomes and a recently acquired fondness for the works of John D. MacDonald--I missed the event altogether. It was to be forty years before one of my children (they are all avid readers, God bless ‘em!) brought the book to my attention. Chatwin had been working with the (London) Sunday Times Magazine when an interview with the elderly architect Eileen Gray inspired him to see the varied and desolate area that lies at the southernmost tip of South America. The rumor (not exactly true) is that Chatwin left a note for his employer that read simply, “Have gone to Patagonia.”

Gone to Patagonia! How often have we on a day-dreamy kind of afternoon wanted to make the same journey? Patagonia is a region whose struggles and eccentricities are richly woven into the historical fabric of the South American continent. In modern times, Patagonia has been the refuge of scoundrels, outlaws, misfits of all kinds and individuals orphaned by time or by fate.

Nicholas Shakespeare’s introduction to the book is excellent and the book itself is one you will never forget. I read it this time for pleasure but will read it again someday to unravel some of its mysteries. There are too many names and dates and places to absorb on a first encounter with “In Patagonia.”

If you haven’t read it—do yourself a favor. Put aside that book that is boring you and read about this place called Patagonia which lies at the very ends of the Earth.

Reminiscent of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways,” Chatwin’s “In Patagonia” will grip you and never let you go.

38 people found this helpful

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In Patagonia

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 31, 2015

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Extraordinary account of the Bruce Chatwin's travels through the Patagonian steppe to Tierra del Fuego. Infused with historical stories that provide a backdrop for the lands he visits, the story here is remarkable.

An artifact belonging to his family provides the gravity that pulls him to the southern reaches of South America. He realizes from the beginning the artifact is likely apocryphal, but that becomes an essential element to the story as it lends a fantastical air to the voyage, as if he's visiting some storybook land. You have to remind yourself as you're reading this that it is a very real, but very exotic, place.

During the course of reading this, it struck me that Chatwin spends little time describing the physical surroundings, which is odd considering this is known to be a region of breathtaking, albeit stark, beauty. When contrasted with his careful depictions of the people, it dawned on me the essence of Patagonia that he conveys here is the hardscrabble people who have come here looking for a better life and found backbreaking toil and harsh conditions. A couple of generations of that produces a distinctive populace and you then realize, for all it's beauty, Patagonia is less a place than a mentality. Fiercely independent, weathered and cragged could be used interchangeably to describe the place or the people.

15 people found this helpful

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Robert Reid

genius or attention deficit disorder?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2008

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Befitting of a genius with an active and wide-ranging mind, Bruce Chatwin has a charm and intensity that might lead you to believe he has attention deficit disorder. Drifting from one narrative thread to the next between chapters (each just a few pages long), he delves deep into the story of each person he meets, and substantiates these stories with literary and/or historical references. Though a few themes recur (e.g., the search for the lost mylodon and the story of Butch Cassidy's escape to Argentina), this is a book that is easy to put down between fragmented sections. And yet, it is still overall an enjoyable work.

Travelers are far more likely to go to Patagonia to avoid people than to learn about them, but Chatwin gracefully pulls of this challenge. Selflessly, he leaves himself out of the story- though Nicholas Shakespeare's introduction notes that Chatwin had a noteable love affair and was arrested in Chile. Unfortunately, Chatwin's narrative is short on dialogue and his description of people is typically terse and short on details, which prevents characters from coming to life. However, Chatwin shows traces of poetic brilliance ("music ghosted from the piano as leaves over a headstone"), an eye for metaphor (noting that in the obscure Yaghan language the word for depression is the same as the word for a crab's vulnerable phase after sloughing off a shell), persistence (evidenced by his uncovering of the origin of the name Patagonia), and bits of dry humor ("The Indian settlements were strung out along the railway line on the principle that a drunk could always get home.").

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Khaled Jhail

Limited and Biased Description of South America

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 1, 2020

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Let me start by saying that the only reason I gave this review a star was for the actual effort Chatwin put into traveling those days from his native UK all the way to South America. In some way he has my respect for actually jotting his experiences down.

However here is why I don't advise anyone to read this book:

1) Literary Style: It's more of a journal than anything else, he barely focuses on a topic and when you flip the page its over, for those who take their time to read its quite annoying. The chapters jump from topic to topic, and doesn't really give you any more than a few pages on the said issue (few pages on nature, brief description of food, then jumps back to history) its confusing if your the type who likes to get 'in the zone' when you read.

2) Colonial Mindset: The writer definitely examines Argentina & Patagonia through the lens of a colonizer from a dying empire. He compares everything to Britain (and Europe) and worst of all he focuses only everything British related throughout his travels which technically evades the point of reading about Patagonia. Yes there are historical links to Britain in Patagonia and South America as a whole, but those links do not define the entire continent and its culture. He ignores the Italian, Arab, Spanish, influence & accomplishments in Argentina & Patagonia and focuses on the lives of a handful of Welsh farmers or maybe some Scotsman's life spent drunk in which I did not purchase the book to read about.

In conclusion if you want to read about Argentina don't buy this book, if you want to learn about some historical British part of history in South America then why not. Other than that I can safely say there are plenty of other books to learn about Argentina & Patagonia.

8 people found this helpful

Sally Walker

A cornucopia of people, places, landscapes and adventures in the tail of South America

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 1, 2019

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A cornucopia of people: exiles, revolutionaries, farmers, shepherds, miners, outlaws including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, sailors, explorers, including Fitzroy and Darwin, adventurers, speculators and let us not forget the indigenous indians, places, landscapes and adventures in the tail of South America. All captivating and intriguing and therefore this book makes for a highly interesting read. This sandwiched between Chatwin's near obsession with a piece of skin with russet hair - all will become clear if you read this book. Chatwin's writing style is perhaps unique and beyond my powers to adequately describe it to you. But intelligent it is for sure and highly engaging. I urge you to read it. this book.

6 people found this helpful

Clive Viegas Bennett

Extraordinary - In Patagonia’s reputation is profoundly deserved

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 25, 2018

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I really should have read, and meant to read, this book years ago. Chatwin is regularly listed among the top 10 travel writers along with my favourites Eric Newby, Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron and Bill Bryson. I would add the great Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, in particular "Patagonia Express".

Patagonia is one of the most beautiful places on the planet and one of the most remote. Chatwin describes the heart wrenching scale of the landscape and the lost specks of astonishing human endeavour in this vast, lonely region.

Above all, he entrances us with an astonishing and haphazard cast of eccentric, wild, bad and downright crazy people that such an unforgiving land has attracted from all over the world. He reminds us, without preaching, that huge estates were built on the exploitation of the poor - the local indigenous and those shipped in from the Chilean islands of Chiloé.

Don’t hesitate, this book will make your life richer. Like all the best books it is unputdownable and will live in your psyche long after you have read the last page.

6 people found this helpful

Margaret Sykes

It was OK

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 22, 2022

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It was reasonable value for just over seven quid, though I found some sections rather tedious. The bits about various revolutions and anarchists I found boring, as well as the stuff about Butch Cassidy etc. The sections regarding the doings of ‘ordinary’ people I enjoyed, and the tales of his relative Charley. I didn’t feel much of his own personality came through, and the descriptions of the Patagonian landscape were limited, in my opinion. if this book ‘redefined travel writing’, then there was something seriously wrong with travel writing!
You don’t even have to go to ‘The Uttermost Part Of The Earth’ to find good stories. I had a friend who fitted milking machines in the Derbyshire Dales in the late 40s, and could tell great yarns, for instance of the farmer who would wind his wife’s apron cords into the mangle before he went out, so she couldn’t ‘get up to no good’ whilst he was away!
The chapters are very short, which I liked as I have a very short attention...

Keith

Not just a travel story......

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

Unusual story of one man's travels in Patagonia, with numerous additional side-stories of people and events in Patagonia's history , the style is Hemingway-esque and written is short self-contained chapters . This is not your usual 'wish you were here' travel writing - it makes fascinating reading and adds whole new dimensions to the geography, geology, flora, fauna and humanity of this little-known corner of South America. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to serious readers everywhere.

6 people found this helpful

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