The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot - Hardcover

Macfarlane, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670025119 ISBN 13: 9780670025114

Publisher: Viking Pr, 2012

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review:

Praise for "The OldWays"
With a steady command of the literature and history of each place he visits, [Macfarlane] tries to read landscapes back into being. His sentences bristle with the argot of cartographers, geologists, zoologists, and botanists. "The New Yorker"

Macfarlane explores the meditative aspects of being a pedestrian not so much a travelogue as a travel meditation, it favors lush prose, colorful digressions if you ve ever had the experience, while walking, of an elusive thought finally coming clear or an inspiration surfacing after a long struggle, "The Old Ways" will speak to you eloquently and persuasively. "The Seattle Times"

A backpack of assorted expeditions charted by a writer whose poetic and scientific skills are equal to one another there are some splendid set pieces. "The Wall Street Journal"

A wonderfully meandering account of the author s peregrinations and perambulations through England, Scotland, Spain, Palestine, and Sichuan Macfarlane sparticular gift is his ability to bring a remarkably broad and varied range of voices to bear on his own pathways and to do so with a pleasingly impressionist yet tenderly precise style. Aengus Woods, "themillions.com"

"Macfarlane seems to know and have read everything his every sentence rewrites the landscape in language crunchy and freshly minted and deeply textured. Surely the most accomplished (and erudite) writer on place to have come along in years." Pico Iyer

"Luminous, possessing a seemingly paradoxical combination of the dream-like and the hyper-vigilant, "The Old Ways" is, as with all of Macfarlane's work, a magnificent read. Each sentence can carry astonishing discovery." Rick Bass

In Macfarlane, British travel writing has a formidable new champion Macfarlane is read above all for the beauty of his prose and his wonderfully innovative and inventive way with language he can write exquisitely about anywhere. William Dalrymple, "The Observer"
In this intricate, sensuous, haunted book, each journey is part of other journeys and there are no clear divisions to be made the walking of paths is, to [Macfarlane], an education, and symbolic, too, of the very process by which we learn things: testing, wandering about a bit, hitting our stride, looking ahead and behind. Alexandra Harris, "The Guardian""

Praise for The OldWays
With a steady command of the literature and history of each place he visits, [Macfarlane] tries to read landscapes back into being. His sentences bristle with the argot of cartographers, geologists, zoologists, and botanists. The New Yorker

Macfarlane explores the meditative aspects of being a pedestrian not so much a travelogue as a travel meditation, it favors lush prose, colorful digressions if you ve ever had the experience, while walking, of an elusive thought finally coming clear or an inspiration surfacing after a long struggle, The Old Ways will speak to you eloquently and persuasively. The Seattle Times

A backpack of assorted expeditions charted by a writer whose poetic and scientific skills are equal to one another there are some splendid set pieces. The Wall Street Journal

A wonderfully meandering account of the author s peregrinations and perambulations through England, Scotland, Spain, Palestine, and Sichuan Macfarlane sparticular gift is his ability to bring a remarkably broad and varied range of voices to bear on his own pathways and to do so with a pleasingly impressionist yet tenderly precise style. Aengus Woods, themillions.com

"Macfarlane seems to know and have read everything his every sentence rewrites the landscape in language crunchy and freshly minted and deeply textured. Surely the most accomplished (and erudite) writer on place to have come along in years." Pico Iyer

"Luminous, possessing a seemingly paradoxical combination of the dream-like and the hyper-vigilant, The Old Ways is, as with all of Macfarlane's work, a magnificent read. Each sentence can carry astonishing discovery." Rick Bass

In Macfarlane, British travel writing has a formidable new champion Macfarlane is read above all for the beauty of his prose and his wonderfully innovative and inventive way with language he can write exquisitely about anywhere. William Dalrymple, The Observer

In this intricate, sensuous, haunted book, each journey is part of other journeys and there are no clear divisions to be made the walking of paths is, to [Macfarlane], an education, and symbolic, too, of the very process by which we learn things: testing, wandering about a bit, hitting our stride, looking ahead and behind. Alexandra Harris, The Guardian"

Praise for The Old Ways

"With a steady command of the literature and history of each place he visits, [Macfarlane] tries 'to read landscapes back into being.' His sentences bristle with the argot of cartographers, geologists, zoologists, and botanists." --The New Yorker

"Macfarlane explores the meditative aspects of being a pedestrian...not so much a travelogue as a travel meditation, it favors lush prose, colorful digressions...if you've ever had the experience, while walking, of an elusive thought finally coming clear or an inspiration surfacing after a long struggle, The Old Ways will speak to you - eloquently and persuasively." --The Seattle Times

"A backpack of assorted expeditions charted by a writer whose poetic and scientific skills are equal to one another...there are some splendid set pieces." --The Wall Street Journal

"A wonderfully meandering account of the author's peregrinations and perambulations through England, Scotland, Spain, Palestine, and Sichuan...Macfarlane's particular gift is his ability to bring a remarkably broad and varied range of voices to bear on his own pathways and to do so with a pleasingly impressionist yet tenderly precise style." --Aengus Woods, themillions.com

"Macfarlane seems to know and have read everything...his every sentence rewrites the landscape in language crunchy and freshly minted and deeply textured. Surely the most accomplished (and erudite) writer on place to have come along in years." --Pico Iyer

"Luminous, possessing a seemingly paradoxical combination of the dream-like and the hyper-vigilant, The Old Ways is, as with all of Macfarlane's work, a magnificent read. Each sentence can carry astonishing discovery." --Rick Bass

"In Macfarlane, British travel writing has a formidable new champion... Macfarlane is read above all for the beauty of his prose and his wonderfully innovative and inventive way with language...he can write exquisitely about anywhere." --William Dalrymple, The Observer

"In this intricate, sensuous, haunted book, each journey is part of other journeys and there are no clear divisions to be made...the walking of paths is, to [Macfarlane], an education, and symbolic, too, of the very process by which we learn things: testing, wandering about a bit, hitting our stride, looking ahead and behind." --Alexandra Harris, The Guardian

About the Author:

Robert Macfarlane is the author of the prize-winning books Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places, both of which were New York Times Notable Books. He has contributed to Harper’s, Granta, The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. He is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Pr
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0670025119
• ISBN 13: 9780670025114
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 432