The Violins of Saint-Jacques
A Tale of the Antilles
$31.80
- Paperback
144 pages
- Release Date
12 May 2004
Summary
On an Aegean island one summer, an English traveller meets an enigmatic elderly Frenchwoman. He is captivated by a painting she owns of a busy Caribbean port overlooked by a volcano, and, in time, she shares the story of her youth there in the early twentieth century. Set in the tropical luxury of the island of Saint-Jacques, hers is a tale of romantic intrigue and decadence amongst the descendents of slaves and a fading French aristocracy. But on the night of the annual Mardi Gras ball, cata…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780719555299 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0719555299 |
| Author: | Patrick Leigh Fermor |
| Publisher: | John Murray Press |
| Imprint: | John Murray Publishers Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 144 |
| Release Date: | 12 May 2004 |
| Weight: | 111g |
| Dimensions: | 197mm x 149mm x 10mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
Excellent … A graceful picture of life on an unusual and exotic island that has both colour and charm - Times Literary Supplement
A brilliant set piece … Patrick Leigh Fermor has a fine visual imagination - New StatesmanA stylish and accomplished piece of sustained good writing … with a strange beauty - Glasgow HeraldPatrick Leigh Fermor evokes the imaginary past with unremitting devotion … enchantingly pretty - ObserverElegant and vividly exotic … The story of the island and the echoing romance of its last Mardi Gras is done with brilliant aesthetic feeling and with a charming philosophic melancholy - The TimesThis little masterpiece is a perfect tour de force - Simon WinchesterAn exuberant and highly-developed traveller’s tale, garlanded with deeply enjoyed and lovingly precise detail - Sunday TimesBeautiful is the adjective which comes uppermost … [Patrick Leigh Fermor] is a writer with outstanding descriptive powers - John Betjeman, Daily TelegraphAbout The Author
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Patrick Leigh Fermor is of English and Irish descent. After his stormy schooldays, followed by his walk across Europe to Constantinople, he lived and travelled in the Balkans and the Greek archipelago acquiring a deep interest in languages and remote places.
He joined the Irish Guards, became a liaison officer in Albania, fought in Greece and Crete where, during the German occupation, he returned three times (once by parachute). Disguised as a shepherd he lived for over two years in the mountains, organising the resistance, and led the party that captured and evacuated the German Commander, General Kreipe. He was awarded the DSO and OBE, was made Honorary Citizen of Heraklion, and later of Kardamyli and Gytheion. He is a Corresponding Member of the Athens Academy.
He now lives partly in Greece in the house he designed with his wife Joan in an olive grove in the Mani, and partly in Worcestershire.
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