The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean - Hardcover

Theroux, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241135044 ISBN 13: 9780241135044

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1995

Synopsis

An account of the author's voyage from Gibraltar, one of the Pillars of Hercules, to the southern Pillar. Instead of crossing the straits, he chose to travel the long way, up the coast of Spain along the Riviera, and by ferry to Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and beyond, through the near-anarchy of Albania and onto a ship through the Levant with a hundred Turks. On this journey, Theroux remains earthbound, using trains, ferries and cruise ships to discover a coastline as wild in places as anything he discovered in China or Peru. Along the way, he discovers another Mediterranean, that of low-season depression, of urban sprawl, of seldom-visited, unchanged places such as the antique villages in southern Italy.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Theroux has written many works of fiction and travel writing, including the modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.

From the Inside Flap:

"DAZZLING."
--Time
"[THEROUX'S] WORK IS DISTINGUISHED BY A SPLENDID EYE FOR DETAIL AND THE TELLING GESTURE; a storyteller's sense of pacing and gift for granting closure to the most subtle progression of events; and the graceful use of language. . . . We are delighted, along with Theroux, by the politeness of the Turks, amazed by the mountainous highlands in Syria, touched by the gesture of an Albanian waitress who will not let him pay for his modest meal. . . . The Pillars of Hercules [is] engrossing and enlightening from start (a damning account of tourists annoying the apes of Gibraltar) to finish (an utterly captivating visit with Paul Bowles in Tangier, worth the price of the book all by itself)."
--Chicago Tribune
"ENTERTAINING READING . . . WHEN YOU READ THEROUX, YOU'RE TRULY ON A TRIP."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
"HIS PICARESQUE NARRATIVE IS STUDDED WITH SCENES THAT STICK IN THE MIND. He looks at strangers with a novelist's eye, and his portraits are pleasantly tinged with malice."
--The Washington Post Book World
"THEROUX AT HIS BEST . . . An armchair trip with Theroux is sometimes dark, but always a delight."
--Playboy
"AS SATISFYING AS A GLASS OF COOL WINE ON A DUSTY CALABRIAN AFTERNOON . . . With his effortless writing style, observant eye, and take-no-prisoners approach, Theroux is in top form chronicling this 18-month circuit of the Mediterranean."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0241135044
• ISBN 13: 9780241135044
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 544