Between the Woods and the Water

Patrick Leigh Fermor

1986 • 281 pages

Ratings8

Average rating4.4

Continuing the epic foot journey across Europe begun in A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor writes about walking from Hungary to the Balkans. The journey that Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on in 1933—to cross Europe on foot with an emergency allowance of one pound a day—proved so rich in experiences that when much later he sat down to describe them, they overflowed into more than one volume. Undertaken as the storms of war gathered, and providing a background for the events that were beginning to unfold in Central Europe, Leigh Fermor’s still-unfinished account of his journey has established itself as a modern classic. Between the Woods and the Water, the second volume of a projected three, has garnered as many prizes as its celebrated predecessor, A Time of Gifts. The opening of the book finds Leigh Fermor crossing the Danube—at the very moment where his first volume left off. A detour to the luminous splendors of Prague is followed by a trip downriver to Budapest, passage on horseback across the Great Hungarian Plain, and a crossing of the Romanian border into Transylvania. Remote castles, mountain villages, monasteries and towering ranges that are the haunt of bears, wolves, eagles, gypsies, and a variety of sects are all savored in the approach to the Iron Gates, the division between the Carpathian mountains and the Balkans, where, for now, the story ends.

Genres

Want to edit this book?Become a Librarian

Series

Featured Series

3 primary books

#2 in Trilogy

Trilogy is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 195 with contributions by Patrick Leigh Fermor.

The broken road : from the Iron Gates to Mount Athos

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

Daren

I realise that this, along with the others in this trilogy, are considered classic, and are thought by many readers to set the bar for travel writing - but for me, I didn't find it hard to put down.

At the start PLF points out that Books about this part of Europe incline to be chiefly, sometimes exclusively, devoted to politics, and thus abundance lessens my guilt about how small a part they play in this one, where they only appear when they impinge directly on the journey.”

For me, it felt like this book outlined significant politics and history - and as I am the first to admit - my knowledge and understanding of this part of Europe is negligible - I was constantly baffled with who the many people were, and what was going on. For me it felt like this was a massive part of the book, and I found it a real battle not to skip forward.

Those parts which concentrated on the journey, and the interactions with the people he met on the way were great, and I am sure for those with a grounding in the history or Hungary & Romania would have enjoyed this read much more than me.

I don't have a copy of the third book of this trilogy, but I will keep an eye out for it, and will read it to complete the journey.

December 9, 2017

Zed

Superb. If I thought that A Time of Gifts was a great book this may be a touch more compelling and deserves all superlative thrown at it by the critics. It is hard not to be envious of Patrick Leigh Fermor, a life that was adventurous beyond anything that the average person could comprehend. It is not the famous events that make me envious though, it is the seeing of a world that no longer exists. His travels in Hungary and Romania took in a world that was pounded to non existent pulp by Nazism a few short years later. We can even add at the (bitter) end of this book the eventual submergence of Ada Kelah and all the other places of interest when the Iron Gates dam was built in 1970. He writes a short final appendix at the end lamenting the loss. Onto the The Broken Road. I look forward to the conclusion of a young man's great adventure.

March 23, 2015