- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Gateway Editions (Jan 25 1988)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0895267845
- ISBN-13: 978-0895267849
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 13.5 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,989,244 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Belloc describes his pilgrimage on foot from France to Rome providing a portrait of western Europe before the World Wars.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely not your average travel book.,
By
This review is from: The Path to Rome (Paperback)
I first heard about Hilaire Belloc through the essays of his friend G.K. Chesterton, after which I came to know him as an historian and essayist through his books The Servile State, Essays of a Catholic, and various works on the history of the Catholic Church. I was not a little surprised at The Path to Rome because it shows a side of him I was unaware of.It is the account of a pilgrimage he made in the medieval style, the point of which is to put oneself voluntarily into a state of poverty and hardship in order to attain a goal--a physical journey that parallels the spiritual one of the soul towards God. Belloc vowed to walk all the way from Toul, in northeastern France to Rome in time for High Mass at St. Peter's on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. During the journey, he was to sleep outdoors, cover 30 miles a day, hear mass every morning, and not ride on anything with wheels. All along the way, he talks of the people, places, difficulties, and thoughts he encounters--in fact anything that comes into his head. Reading it is like going on an adventure with the wittiest, most perceptive, most high-spirited traveling companion you could ever hope for. In form it is probably closest to eighteenth-century novels such as Fielding's Tom Jones and Sterne's Tristram Shandy--a string of assorted episodes and observations, but I have to say I've never read anything quite like it. This is one pilgrimage I'd like to go on again and again.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lucid and lovely and often wickedly funny.,
By frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Path to Rome (Paperback)
I enjoyed the book very much, although not quite as much as I did when I began reading it. I normally read very quickly, but at the beginning I found it so lovely and funny that I deliberately slowed myself down-- reading only 20 pages per day or so-- so that I could savor it a little bit. In the later phases of the book, although it stayed funny and thought-provoking I found it just a little bit less beautiful, so I allowed myself to read very quickly again.Don't expect a traditional travel book and certainly don't expect a description of religious enlightenment (except around the edges). Using an Auctor/Lector conversation, Belloc's constant witty asides about the purpose of the book solidly ground the reading in the mundane, but a beautiful vision of the mundane (worldly in the best sense of the word). It made me jealous of the journey.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unbeatable Fun,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Path to Rome (Paperback)
I'd heard about this book for years, but it was out of print and I was not able to locate a copy. I'm happy to report it was worth the wait. It even made me feel young again because it's written with a rare physical energy and youthful exuberance...and humor. In fact, Belloc wrote this in such a fresh and vigorous way he made me laugh out loud 101 years later. As a young man Belloc took off for a personal pilgrimage from Toul, France to Rome, Italy -- and he didn't want to take an easy way. If he had a choice of going around a mountain or over it, he wanted to go over it. It happened more than once that he walked into an inn and told others what he had just done -- only to find they didn't believe him! I wanted to grab his listener by the arm and say, "I know he did it! I was with him!" This book is both a time machine and a vicarious adventure.
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