Old Calabria

By Norman Douglas

Book Overview

I FIND it hard to sum up in one word the character of Lucera--the effect it produces on the mind; one sees so many towns that the freshness of their images becomes blurred. The houses are low but not... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0007DMHD8
• Release Date: January 1956
• Publisher: HARCOURT BRACE & CO@
• Length: 355 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent Read

This was a brilliant book and thoroughly enjoyable. At first I got it to look into the nature of the Calabrian people but soon realized it was the story of one man's interpretation of his own travels through Southern Italy in areas that may at one time have been part of Calabria. Interestingly San Giuseppe di Cupertino was mentioned in the book but he is from Le Marche, far north of Calabria if old. Still a witty and sarcastic endeavor that was fun to read.

Montaigne meets Nabokov

If you enjoy books by literary travellers, you will love this one. In it a humane sensibility reveals itself in clean, meticulous prose. This is not a book about Calabria but a book about Norman Douglas in Calabria, a much more interesting topic. Read Paul Fussell's excellent essay on Douglas, "Norman Douglas's Temporary Attachments" and you will understand. In Abroad: British Literary Traveling between the Wars