Rockport Public Library

The way of the world, Nicolas Bouvier ; translated from the French by Robyn Marsack ; introduction by Patrick Leigh Fermor ; drawings by Thierry Vernet

eng

contains biographical information

mapsillustrations

no index present

non fiction

The way of the world

299708091

Nicolas Bouvier ; translated from the French by Robyn Marsack ; introduction by Patrick Leigh Fermor ; drawings by Thierry Vernet

New York Review Books classics

In 1953, twenty-four-year old Nicolas Bouvier and his artist friend Thierry Vernet set out to make their way overland from their native Geneva to the Khyber Pass. They had a rattletrap Fiat and a little money, but above all they were equipped with the certainty that by hook or by crook they would reach their destination, and that there would be unanticipated adventures, curious companionship, and sudden illumination along the way. The Way of the World, which Bouvier fashioned over the course of many years from his journals, is an entrancing story of adventure, an extraordinary work of art, and a voyage of self-discovery on the order of Robert M. Pirsig' Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A Cult Classic, "The Way of the World" is one of the most beguiling travel books ever written. Reborn from the ashes of a Pakistan rubbish heap, it tells of a friendship between a writer and an artist, forged on an impecunious, life-enhancing journey from Serbia to Afghanistan in the 1950s. On one level it is a candid description of a road journey, on another a meditation on travel as a journey towards the self, all written by a sage with a golden pen and a wide infectious smile. It is published here for the first time in English with the Vernet drawings which are such a dynamic part of its whole

Introduction --- Preface --- A scent of melons --- The road to Anatolia --- The lion and the sun: Tabriz-Azerbaijan -- Turbans ans willows -- Tabriz II -- Shahrah --- Around the Saki Bar --- Afghanistan: The road to Kabul -- Kabul -- The Hindu kush -- The Khyber road