A Time of Gifts (New York Review Books Classics)

Paperback - 03 October, 2005 - New York Review Books Classics
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By: Patrick Leigh Fermor and Jan Morris
ISBN: 1590171659

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Reviews by readers

A TIME OF GIFTS . . .

A TIME OF GIFTS is Fermor's lively autobiographical account of his walking tour of 1930s Europe as a charming, precocious and astonishingly brilliant teenage dropout. It encompasses not only the rake's progress, but acute observations of persons and places of that now vanished time, and remarkably erudite discourses on art, architecture, literature, history, anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, geography, and theories of cultural influence, as well. A TIME OF GIFTS is as enthralling as it is difficult. If the reader is willing to cross-check Fermor's frequent unexplained references and allusions; to consult a good dictionary with disheartening regularity; to become accustomed to Fermor's complex English prose style that, at times, is akin to learning a new language; and to not become frustrated with his dizzying flights of descriptive fancy that leave the reader grasping at his coattails, one will thoroughly enjoy this book. In other words, A TIME OF GIFTS is not for lightweights: it is great art; and great art demands one's full attention. And if one gives it one's full attention, one will emerge on the other side giddy with accomplishment . . . that same elated feeling one might recall from college having completed challenging courses taught by demanding but rewarding professors, done well, and expanded one's intellectual horizons beyond imagining.

While A TIME OF GIFTS is about many things, a central theme remains constant: the kindness of strangers. That and that we are children inhabiting an earthly paradise called life who stand to reap the richest gifts from the most unlikely sources by merely playing nicely with others.

Fermor's account (first published in the U.K. in 1977 and published in the U.S. this past year) continues in a second volume entitled BETWEEN THE WOODS AND THE WATER (first published in the U.K. in 1986 and published in the U.S. this past year). A third and concluding volume, not yet published, is widely expected, although Fermor is now in his nineties.

"...all prospects glowed."

Patrick Fermor was booted from school in Britain as a teen. His curiosity, hunger for experience, and immense energy were ill-matched to the almost monastic academic setting. Some time later, in 1933 and 1934, those same energies prompted him to walk across central Europe, eventually to reach Constantinople. This account of that long walk, put to paper years later from memory and from diaries, is one of the clearest, most poignant glimpses into what remained of Old Europe before Naziism, Communism, and the global economy erased it from the cultural map. It is also one of the great coming-of-age memoirs, a "sort of investiture with the toga virilis", in Fermor's words, literate, ecstatic, radiant with fresh and creative observation. The force of Fermor's energy, courage, and intelligence pulses in every line, whether he is describing a beautiful Hungarian gypsy girl or the influence of the Italic counter-reformation on Bohemian vernacular architecture. To the young wanderer, beauty is to be found everywhere, and no beauty is so sublime that it can't be described, puzzled over, marveled at, and taken to heart. My experience in reading this book is that my native hesitancy and trepidation feel suddenly inconsequential. Again in Fermor's words: "My journay had taken on a new dimension and all prospects glowed."

There is no good reason that this text has escaped the college required-reading lists. In the short time since I discovered it and read it, it has become central in my thinking about European history, about modern literature, and about my own youth. It has also rekindled in me a desire to see the world. In other words, it has startled my drowsy youthfulness into full wakefulness and full willingness to see beauty.

Elegant Memoir

Based on a walking tour taken by the author during his late teen years, A Time of Gifts is a beautifully written memoir of travels in central Europe on the eve of WWII. Fermor decided to walk from Holland to Istanbul, following a route that was approximately the Rhine and Danube valleys. Written many years after the trip, and based both on memory, diaries kept during the trip, and mature reflections, this book is an artful compendium of travel per se and essayistic reflections on different aspects of the trip. A couple of things stand out. Leigh Fermor appears to have had quite a few upper class connections and was lodged at various points during the trip in the homes of aristocrats. There is a strong sense of nostalgia for the lost world of the pre-war European aristocracy, though Leigh Fermor is definitely not sentimental about their fate. Another impression, particularly after the account leaves Germany, is the rural and traditional character of much of the Europe through which he traveled. A Time of Gifts gives a good sense of a Europe that vanished with WWII and the postwar modernizations of much of Europe. This book concludes with Fermor entering Hungary, and the story is continued in another of his memoirs.

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