Tuesday, September 25, 2018
Five observations on Patrick Leigh Fermor, and what I don't know about him
I've just about finished reading A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor's 1977 memoir about his travels across Europe on foot in 1933 (when he was 18; first of 3 volumes actually), and I know nothing about him other than what I've read in this book - but I guess that still means I know a lot. First of all, he is or was an astonishingly good writer - terrific scenes and observations about life in various European cities where he stops for a few days and, more interesting, about tiny farmhouses and pubs and the occasional chateaux where the few remaining entitled elite huddle as if against a storm - he's often invited in, through various connections he makes along the way, and he never fails to describe the inhabitants and the minutia and detritus of their now nearly vanished world. Second, he's a polymath (jokingly, he applies that moniker to a man he meets on his journey) or at the very least a great listener - he seems to have the entire history of Europe and a vast knowledge of architecture and the military on the tips of his fingers and he picks up languages as he moves along. Third, like most travel writers he's a true adventurer, who rolls with the punches as it were and never seems terribly put out when he's in a difficult situation - far from his destination as night falls, for ex., - and he never complains (at least in print) or makes much of the difficulties and hardships he must have endured in his winter crossing. Fourth, he has a prodigious memory - he's writing in detail about events from 40 years back - and, Fifth, he's a terrific diarist: Near the end of this volume he pastes in some of his diary entries from his first days in Hungary, and we see that not only was he a great writer in his 60s but the notebook he kept while traveling - he discovered or recovered it only when in the process of writing this memoir - is full of rich detail and sharp observations. What I don't know is anything else about his life - even whether he is alive today. I suspect he must have written other books - novels, perhaps? - he has most of the novelist's skills - and what he did for a living or a career: other writing? Someting in academics? Freelance historian or critic? When I finish reading this volume, today most likely, I will find more info on the life and works, if any, of PLF.
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