A Time of Gifts

On Foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube

By: Patrick Leigh Fermor

Narrated by: Crispin Redman

Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1933, at the age of 18, Patrick Leigh Fermor set out on an extraordinary journey by foot - from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople. A Time of Gifts is the first volume in a trilogy recounting the trip, and takes the listener with him as far as Hungary.

It is a book of compelling glimpses - not only of the events that were curdling Europe at that time, but also of its resplendent domes and monasteries, its great rivers, the sun on the Bavarian snow, the storks and frogs, the hospitable burgomasters who welcomed him, and that world's grandeurs and courtesies. His powers of recollection have astonishing sweep and verve, and the scope is majestic.

©1977 The estate of Patrick Leigh Fermor (P)2014 Hodder & Stoughton

Critic reviews

"Nothing short of a masterpiece" (Jan Morris)
"Not only is the journey one of physical adventure but of cultural awakening. Architecture, art, genealogy, quirks of history and language are all devoured - and here passed on - with a gusto uniquely his" (Colin Thubron, Sunday Telegraph)
"Rightly considered to be among the most beautiful travel books in the language" ( Independent)

Very Dated

This was on the recommended reading list prior to a river cruise along the same route of this book. It was definitely dated. Many references to freeloading and getting repetitively drunk made me realize that the experience in the book could not be repeated today. The author was often eloquent but also wavered with wordiness. At times, it seemed that he was just trying to appear educated. Overall this was good but not great.

Lots of flowery talk

Not sure I got much out of the book. I guess I was looking for more information about the area at hand. The way the narrator spoke was enjoyable to listen to. No one I know speaks like that. Probably for good reason.

A travelers tale

Man. This is a fun story. It’s not so much about the places. Rather what he thinks of the people and situations. Just fantastic.

Superb Narration

Unlike most audible books, this narrator deftly pronounces foreign words and naturally weaves them into the English passages. If only more books were narrated this this skill!

Nobody Writes Like This Anymore

I'm doing a cruise on the Danube later this summer so I decided to do some research. The first book I read was a natural history of the river, long on descriptions of hydroelectric dams, but in between the descriptions of the river's current and the Roman ruins there were references to Patrick Leigh Fermor's trip through Eastern Europe. Same with the second book I consulted -- the one that was supposed to be the armchair travel book on the Danube, but turned out to be flat and purposeless. Now acquainted with more than one writer chasing this one, I decided to investigate this Leigh Fermor. It turns out he's one of the last of his kind -- classically educated, straight out of the English middle class, ready to be trained for the peace-time cavalry, and so poor he has to borrow his evening clothes. This is a guy who has inherited the the wealth of Western learning, but has nothing to lose. That's what makes this book both beautiful and exciting. The young Leigh Fermor in this book is just out of school, but he hasn't lost his English public schoolboy's yen for the prank and the reckless adventure. He has his whole life and the entire continent of Europe ahead of him. He also has access to the dying aristocratic class of Eastern Europe. He spends months of his life in their townhouses, on their manors, in their libraries, and at their dining tables and in his recollections -- this book was written from his memory and from the aid of his travel journals well into his middle age -- show us a world at the end of time, ready to be wiped out by the second world war and by communist expansion. So, "A Time of Gifts" is a illustration of two things we've lost from this world.

Narrator didn't seem the greatest fit perhaps?

I wish it weren't so, but I have to say I was mildly disappointed by the book. Part of the problem has to do with the audio narrator's somewhat dramatically effete-sounding style, although he seems to pronounce German phrases (which pop up regularly) like a native. Regarding the text itself, there seemed to be a fair amount of digression at the beginning, detracting from the travel narrative aspect. Moreover, he just seems too comfortable as long as there are English/German speakers at hand, moving from one host to another by word-of-mouth in Germany and Austria. Czechoslovakia seemed a transition zone (remember, Kafka wrote in German not Czech). So, I'm optimistic that the remainder of the trip covered by the sequel will be more adventurous, shall we say.

I was struck that he's hitting eastern Europe during their brief period of inter-war democracy, no empires, no communists. Still, every time he mentions Jews or Gypsies, I cringe knowing what's soon to follow.

Read this book. Avoid the audio version.

By all means read Patrick Leigh Fermor’s compelling book but stay away from this slipshod performance. The text is mindlessly -and distractingly over-inflected and there are many mispronunciations in English and other languages, but particularly in the many German passages.

Great story telling

It is a great story, very well written, probably the author took time in polishing the text, but even so it sounds extremely joyous in telling us his adventures and misadventures in a very lively, colorful and precise description of the places and people he encounters. The only shortcoming that we have in this audiobook is the pronunciation of the non English parts, quite atrocious, but understandable since there are very few narrators, if there is one, that has the range of language knowledge that this book requires.

Lots of fun and learning with a great reader

This is fun and challenging at the same time. The written descriptions of the walk and people, places, flora and fauna encountered are richly detailed. And the lessons in the geography, history and cultures of eastern Europe are worth the effort sometimes required to shift between Fermor’s micro and macro lenses. While some may find the reader, Crispin Redman, over-dramatizing, I think he is superb at enunciating Fermor’s often complex, semicolon-strewn sentences, making them accessible for a listener’s understanding. The narrative is too often interrupted by untranslated foreign phrases, but all in all a great experience. I have downloaded the second book of the trilogy. Tried to download the third, but for some reason the third is unavailable in the US on Audible. I guess I will read it the old-fashioned way, imagining Redman’s reading to me, hearing his voice in my head.

Walking Magician

Fermor makes himself the ghost of Bavarian Past, the wise child who knows the way through the woods. His walk tours the kind of darkness that the story needs, a supportive depth that allows us to appreciate the worth of our guide. Even as the clouds roll in, his capacity for rapture is a gift that keeps on weaving into an otherwise colloquial and conversational tale.

His other great power is a wonderful capacity for digression, footnotes and sidenotes. He has the sort of curiosity that seems to always pay off. It's as if he had to make what memories he could burn brightly- because he had been to a nearly fallen Eden that no one could go again. If his constant allusions to fairy tales, the Middle Ages, ancient myth and artwork irritate you, consider that Europe was robbed of a lot of stories that no one wanted in the 20th century in favor of an attempt to return to Before.

"Lamplight shines through shields of crimson glass patterned with gold crescents and outlined in lead; but the arch that framed them is gone. And there are lost faces: a chimney sweep, a walrus moustache, a girl's long fair hair under a tam o'shanter. It is like reconstructing a brontosaur from half an eye socket and a basket full of bones.”

Firmly grounded in a sense of place, Fermor engages with a history that was not yet ready to be history, telling friends about wacky adventures, about the power of stories and it is about an 18 year old boy growing up. There's a gleeful silliness that lurks under some of this, a deadly seriousness to other parts, a winking acknowledgement of melodrama. Some storytellers outshine the story- Fermor is one of these. There are a lot of good stories in this book. In the end, he's the best one.