The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 9781523436354 Books
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Hilaire Belloc was one of the 20th century's most prolific historians, and he wrote seminal works about European history in a variety of periods and places.
The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 9781523436354 Books
The author sure has a grand time with the telling of his pilgrimage to Rome. This is the most remarkable thing about the book: its contagious enthusiasm and exhilarating joy while walking along. The other side to it is that the author wanders and digresses too much in his tale, and even more: conscious of this, he indulges in these wanderings to the point of making up another voice in the story, that of the Reader (or alter ego), who does well in reminding him of the absurdity of his extemporaneous digressions, but to no avail.The interspersed dialogue between these two voices aims at making the whole trip more comical and amusing to the reader. And it does well; but not well enough to outweigh the blurry impression one gets from the main narrative. A pity. One wants to feel the joy the author feels, but it is more like laughing along with other people just for seeing them doing it, but not knowing what it is all about. I came to think it was my lack of concentration, and perhaps it was. So on these grounds I encourage the reader to go on and get this book: this may be a treat waiting for you. But I personally never could delve into it enough to get a grip of this pilgrimage.
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The Path to Rome Hilaire Belloc 9781523436354 Books Reviews
I've never read a book like this. I'm a fan of travelogues, and I thought this would be an interesting read. I expected a scholarly and sedate narrative of genteel travels -- not a bit of it! Belloc starts playing with words in the opening pages, then gets down to solid details of his experiences (fascinating and resonant, bacon and dry white wine, tumbling mountain streams and silent alpine forests), then drifts into impromptu verse and philosophical musings, then tells of life-threatening adventures, then sits of a quiet evening on a bridge where he can hear singing in the nearby church . . . and on and on. Haunting, hilarious, an amazing book.
Partly travelogue, partly interior monolog, completely entertaining! The young Belloc describes his walking trip from southeastern France to Rome, which (most intriguingly) he tries to accomplish by walking in a straight line, 30-45 miles a day. This extraordinary route takes him well off the beaten track, through isolated villages, nearly unpassable mountains and rivers, and sparsely populated plains. Belloc describes his experiences with his usual insight and offers humurous digressions on aspects of faith and culture as well. The book also contains a good number of rough landscape sketches he drew during his journey. In the end, Belloc paints a thoroughly detailed and honest picture of the Europe he loved so well and was to write of with such power. In the process he also gives us a detailed picture of his own character and mood, something quite helpful in interpreting his historical works.
I greatly enjoyed this journey which I took with Belloc. Traveling through Europe with him was a great pleasure. (It reminded me of the outings I took with Edith Stein and her friends through her autobiography.) Casual conversation and listening in to his thoughts on the simple things of life (as well as the profound) helped me to see what it means to be a well-formed person. I think I too became more fully human by travelling with him. This experience has also led me to read some of his other writings.
I have an older edition of this book which has Belloc's delightful illustrations. They add much to the experience.
A fun book which I highly recommend.
Update (7/21/18) Our Catholic parish book club read and discussed this book and most people greatly enjoyed taking the journey. As one remarked "You had to decide whether or not to let Belloc take you on his literary journey. If you did, it was fun." (Each summer we read a "Catholic classic" we should have read, but haven't. It's been a fun experience in this now 16-year-old book club.)
Belloc shares his adventure of making a pilgrimage to Rome on foot in the early twentieth century (prior to World War I). He was "On the Road" fifty years before Kerouac on a spiritual journey full of faith, wit, beautiful scenery, interesting characters, and personal adventures.
Watch out for the kindle version. It is cheap! But it is poorly formatted. It looks like there are a lot of extra linefeeds in the text, so that sentences and paragraphs are very chopped up.
This makes it very difficult to read! I doubt I will get through it. From what I can tell (skimming) most of the book has this formatting problem.
I feel bad giving this 1 star! I know this is a popular book. But buyers should beware.
The book is delightful, but this particular edition does not contain Belloc's drawings that were in the original. This is a serious drawback because the drawings -- some of which are maps -- aid in one's understanding of his story. Without the drawings, I feel like this is only half a book. I would recommend that you buy a different published version that contain his drawings, even if you have to buy an older used copy.
Contains many insights through interesting travels and characters.
The author sure has a grand time with the telling of his pilgrimage to Rome. This is the most remarkable thing about the book its contagious enthusiasm and exhilarating joy while walking along. The other side to it is that the author wanders and digresses too much in his tale, and even more conscious of this, he indulges in these wanderings to the point of making up another voice in the story, that of the Reader (or alter ego), who does well in reminding him of the absurdity of his extemporaneous digressions, but to no avail.
The interspersed dialogue between these two voices aims at making the whole trip more comical and amusing to the reader. And it does well; but not well enough to outweigh the blurry impression one gets from the main narrative. A pity. One wants to feel the joy the author feels, but it is more like laughing along with other people just for seeing them doing it, but not knowing what it is all about. I came to think it was my lack of concentration, and perhaps it was. So on these grounds I encourage the reader to go on and get this book this may be a treat waiting for you. But I personally never could delve into it enough to get a grip of this pilgrimage.
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