Ionia A Quest

by Stark, Freya

• ISBN13: 9781848851917
• ISBN10: 184885191X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-25
• Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks

Summary

When Freya Stark travelled along the western coast of Turkey in 1952 she met only one other tourist. Today, this region is the most popular and well-travelled in the country, but to travel with Stark - whose aim was to 'create a guide-book in time' - is to experience Turkey in a richer and more inspiring way than any modern guide or history can provide. In the ruins and vanished cities of Ionia lay the record of human history - of what, Stark believed, made us what we are today. Her longing to know more, to unearth the living from the wreckage of the past and to discover the ingredients that shaped the ancient world drove her forward. With Herodotus as her travelling companion, she began her quest in Smyrna and traced a route through the ancient cities of Asia Minor, which were haunted by echoes of Odysseus and Alexander the Great and by the poets and philosophers, musicians and mathematicians who flourished in this world. Wandering beyond the boundaries of travel, Stark entered into the soul of ancient Ionia, examining the ever-present tension between East and West and the elements of religion, society and commerce that forged the culture of a civilisation. A journey through the ancient world that resonates in the modern, Freya Stark's 'Ionia' is travel writing at its most elegant and history at its most dynamic - a powerful and beautifully-rendered classic of 20th century literature.

Author Biography

Freya Stark (1893-1993), `the poet of travel', was the doyenne of Middle East travel writers. Her travels earned her the title of Dame and huge public acclaim and her many, now classic, books include Traveller's Prelude, Ionia, The Southern Gates of Arabia, Alexander's Path, Dust in the Lion's Paw, East is West and Valleys of the Assassins.

Table of Contents

“Readers of Stark’s reissued works...will find a writer who endows everyone in her field of vision with the heightened interest that she felt herself.” -- The New Yorker

"Freya Stark remains unexcelled as an interpreter of brief encounters in wild regions against the backdrop of history." -- The Observer

"Dame Freya’s was a passionate imagination, and her embrace of landscape was fierce... [She] was often called a 'travel writer'. The adjective, however, limits the accomplishment." -- The New York Times

"It is enriching and enjoyable. If discovering the ancient history of the region is your bag rather than beer or baklava, then Freya Stark will be a most erudite companion.” -- Londra Gazette

 

"...it is beautiful writing that encapsulates not only the history, but the feel, the smell, the sensation and sheer wonder of what she discovers... enriching and enjoyable."  --London Turkish Gazette

 

"Freya Stark has rightfully earned a place among the greatest travel writers of the 20th century. I.B.Tauris is releasing [A Winter in Arabia] alongside seven other works, as The Freya Stark Collection. A timely reminder of an extraordinary woman and a fine writer."  -- Sunday Telegraph

"It’s hard to think of a writer in the travel game who most closely demonstrates the merits of Flaubert’s three rules for good writing: clarity, clarity and finally clarity. Re-reading her now, her restrained powers of description shine as brightly as they ever did, and they will continue to shine until the next Ice Age... Her books are more relevant than ever. Besides sheer enjoyment, one should read her for a fresh perspective on the intractable issues dogging Christian-Muslim relations. She was able to see both sides and what she found was similarity, not difference. The greatest woman traveller of the 20th century? I think so." --The Times

"She was a vivid describer of scenes and landscapes. More, she was a connoisseur of people: she knew how to draw them out and listened closely when they spoke" -- Claudia Roth Pierpont, The New Yorker