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Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese [Paperback]

Patrick Leigh Fermor
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Book Description

19 July 2004
This is Patrick Leigh Fermor's spellbinding part-travelogue, part inspired evocation of a part of Greece's past. Joining him in the Mani, one of Europe's wildest and most isolated regions, cut off from the rest of Greece by the towering Taygettus mountain range and hemmed in by the Aegean and Ionian seas, we discover a rocky central prong of the Peleponnese at the southernmost point in Europe.



Bad communications only heightening the remoteness, this Greece - south of ancient Sparta - is one that maintains perhaps a stronger relationship with the ancient past than with the present. Myth becomes history, and vice versa...



Leigh Fermor's hallmark descriptive writing and capture of unexpected detail have made this book, first published in 1958, a classic - together with its Northern Greece counterpart, Roumeli.

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Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese + Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece + Between the Woods and the Water: on Foot to Constantinople from the Hook of Holland - The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray (19 July 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0719566916
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719566912
  • Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 19.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 6,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Review

An extraordinary book of adventure and encounter, fantasy and learning, observation and experience (Sunday Times)

From the Mani he has brought back riches. How can one do justice to the fascination and poetry of this book, its generosity and its learning - its love? (Spectator)

He supercharges his narrative with a combination of tenderness and high spirits appropriate to his past achievements as a guerrilla leader in Crete (Daily Telegraph)

Mani and Roumeli: two of the best travel books of the century (Financial Times)

John Murray is doing the decent thing and reissuing all of Leigh Fermor's main books ... But what else would you expect from a publisher whose commitment to geography is such that for more than two centuries it has widened our understanding of the world? (Geographical Magazine)

Bringing the landscape alive as no other writer can, he uses his profound and eclectic understanding of cultures and peoples ... to paint vivid pictures - nobody has illuminated the geography of Europe better (Geographical Magazine)

'Extraordinarily engaging . . . thanks to Leigh Fermor's ability to turn an insight into a telling phrase . . . a compelling story' (London Review of Books)

About the Author

After his famous walk across Europe - recounted in A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and the Water - Patrick Leigh Fermor lived and travelled in the Balkans and the Greek Archipelago. In the Second World War he joined the Irish Guards, became a liaison officer in Albania and fought in Greece and Crete - living disguised as a shepherd in the mountains for two years organising resistance activities. He was awarded the DSO and CBE, and a knighthood in the 2004 new Year Honours List. His writing career, spanning over fifty years, includes six other titles available in John Murray paperback. He lives in Greece, in a house he designed and built.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Smart and witty travel in Southern Greece 21 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
I took this book with me on a trip to Sparti in Southern Greece this year (2001). Although this book recollects a journey taken (in the 1950s) before the tourist blitz, it still holds true in many of the subjects discussed...especially the undying village myths that combine pagan and Christian elements. Paddy does a great job melding history with his travels, and relates the present-day to what happened during the Byzantine era and Turkish occupation. His imagery is very complex, but his portraits of the Greeks in the Mani are very insightful and entertaining.
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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A world of wonders 31 July 2004
By Alekos
Format:Paperback
MANI ... It is not for nothing that Patrick Leigh Fermor is generally considered the greatest living travel writer in English. Reading any one of his books, always a smooth, elegant and intellectually exciting undertaking, is to accept an invitation to the private world of a master observer of places and manners who is also pretty sharp in such areas of human endeavor as history, architecture, music, theology, psychology, mythology, and languages both classical and modern. He is extremely erudite - an autodidact, he says - and his approach to travel writing is strictly literary and sometimes sublimely so. This book, doubtless conceived as a companion volume to ROUMELI, which deals with Northern Greece, takes us to the southernmost part of the Peloponnesus. Unfortunately, the world of rocks and rustics and supreme beauty it describes is now largely vanished, so it is therefore of great value to have a traveler's vision and memory of it as it was about sixty years ago. Always subtle and elegant, the story takes on a heightened aesthetic and intellectual intensity at certain points and in particular locales. For example, the opening paragraph of the book's final chapter describes the writer's arrival at Gytheio by means of an extended metaphor comparing entrance into a city with the act of coitus, and if any reader should miss this metaphor let me point out the author's use of such words as maidenhead and deflower. A further adornment of the metaphor, conceptual and literary, is provided by the revelation that the little island a few yards off the coast, now named Marathonisi and now connected to Gytheio by a causeway, but called Kranae by Homer, is in fact the island where Paris and Helen spent their fist night after the famous elopement.... Read more ›
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read 1 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback
Patrick Leigh Fermor is the best travel writer I have ever read. This book is full of history and description of the Mani, he also delves into the origins of the people living in this area of Greece. This is Greece before it's tourism. Very interesting indeed!
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Beware, you'll want to go there. 20 Jun 2003
Format:Paperback
I discovered PLF's "Mani" in the early 1990's and was absolutely enchanted not just by the places he described but by the beauty of his writing. His descriptive skills are second to none and his knowledge and use of the English language is a delight.

Through his writing he demonstrates a deep-felt love for Greece and its people. His profound knowledge of the history of the country coupled with a lively imagination at times takes the reader off into some strange flights of fantasy. When he returns to the very real world of the Inner Mani it is often to show that the region is as fantastic as anything from his imagination.

You may find that you'll need a dictionary to hand and one or two passages on the convoluted history and genealogy of long dead rulers and despots may leave you thinking you've stumbled across a medieval census but don't be put off, you will also be rewarded with writing that leaves you with images that will last you a lifetime.

But beware, I was so captured by PLF's description of the Mani that I had to follow in his footsteps and go and see for myself. Not the first and I'm sure not the last.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The magic of Greece 22 Oct 2012
Format:Paperback
I love this book. It sat in my dad's library for years until I was old enough to properly read and appreciate it.
You take the journey with Patrick Leigh Fermor and view an old fashioned Greece, rare glimpses into the community and wonderful old customs, habits and mannerisms.
Having grown up in Greece and written my own books about the country and people,
I can vouch for the authenticity of this brilliant book. A gem.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Rugged Greece 18 Dec 2011
Format:Paperback
Evocative, atmospheric and aromatic book which evokes this region at the far south of the Peleponnese. Leigh-Fermor at his best.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Mani 30 July 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I knew about this book for years, but was only prompted to read it when we went on holiday to the Mani last year, staying in one of the fabled tower-houses which Leigh Fermor writes about with such gusto. His visit to the region was in the early 50s, before there was a road down the peninsular. The Mani is the central rocky spine of the three great fingers which reach down towards Crete from the near-island of the Peloponese in western Greece.
Its terrifying mountain remoteness and harsh landscape meant that throughout history, this part of Greece was almost completely undeveloped. From ancient times, the Cretans, Hellenes, Romans, Turks, Venetians, Greeks, French, British, Germans, etc all just went round it, and it became a haven for runaways, bandits, pirates, ruffians, warlords and fighting men. It was never really conquered, being too difficult and 'not worth it'.
The resulting breed of truculence and resourcefulness, violence and pride was remarkable.
One outcome of this was the construction of houses in which families sought to out-do each other by routinely smashing their neighbours' dwellings in any way they could. Apart from periods of truce, such as harvest-time or weddings, and safe passage for doctors, women and children, any man seen out of doors at any time of day was fair game to be shot at, stoned or otherwise violently attacked.
It was always an advantage to have your house taller than your neighbours, so you could rain rocks down onto their rooftops. No-one would have an ordinary door into their house - rather, the entrance would be a tiny hidden ingress, giving into a narrow or low space, so that enemies could not storm in. Getting upstairs to the sleeping quarters or cool rooftops would be by rope ladders, which could be drawn up for safety.
... Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Not The Lonely Planet Guide to the Southern Peloponnese
The subtitle of this book is a little misleading for it is hardly a travelogue, more of an excuse to roam - philosophically, mythologically, historically, anthropologically - with... Read more
Published 2 months ago by J. Nichols
5.0 out of 5 stars Mani" Travels in the Southern Peloponnese
I love all of Patrick Leigh Fermor's books. He was a wonderful travel writer and must be sadly missed by his family and friends.
Published 4 months ago by Mrs.C.M.Bryden
1.0 out of 5 stars Mani - not a travel book
Having read Patrick Leigh Fermor's wonderful account of his walk across Europe in 'A Time of Gifts', I was looking forward to reading about the Southern Peloponnese. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Dr D R S Long
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect travel companion
I visited the Mani this summer and bought the book after. I totally recommend it. A great read by a fine travel writer. A must if considering this part of mainland Greece.
Published on 15 Oct 2009 by Alicia Dangerfield
4.0 out of 5 stars Made an acceptable present I believe!
Cann't say I've read this as I sent it as present however it was well received so ... and I have read some of his other stuff and I believe it is another classic!
Published on 31 Oct 2008 by Mr. DAVID Geer
1.0 out of 5 stars A rather turgid read
This was not so much the entertaining travelogue I was hoping for as a scholarly work on Greek and Maniot culture. Read more
Published on 12 July 2001
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