The Pillars of Hercules

a grand tour of the Mediterranean

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 18, 2024 | History

The Pillars of Hercules

a grand tour of the Mediterranean

  • 4.00 ·
  • 1 Rating
  • 5 Want to read
  • 0 Currently reading
  • 1 Have read

In this modern version of the Grand Tour, Theroux sets off from Gibraltar, one of the fabled Pillars of Hercules, on a glorious journey around the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a long, lively, occasionally dangerous, and endlessly fascinating trip, up the coast of Spain, along the Riviera, by ferry to the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and beyond - way beyond.

By foot, train, bus, and cruise ship, Theroux travels around Italy and the Greek islands, to Albania in a state of near anarchy and to war-torn Croatia. He sails across an old sea of myths into Istanbul, its minarets, mosque domes, and obelisks beckoning him to the Levant.

After hearing of Theroux's onward itinerary, a Turkish shipmate murmurs, "Gechmis olsen!" - May it be behind you! Ahead are Damascus and the remote villages of Syria, shrouded in the cult of Assad and his martyred son; Israel, besieged by suicide bombers; Egypt, where Theroux visits with Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, recovering from an assassination attempt. And past the hill that marks the southern Pillar of Hercules lie Morocco and Paul Bowles' Tangier.

  1. Exploring coastlines as wild as anything he encountered in China or Peru, probing through layers of tradition and culture, ancient and modern, tawdry and splendid, Theroux recalls the words of his predecessors - Homer, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Evelyn Waugh, Carlo Levi, Lawrence Durrell - and weaves the legends and siren calls of civilizations as old as time into a tantalizing story about life on the Mediterranean today.
Publish Date
Publisher
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Language
English
Pages
509

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Previews available in: Spanish English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Pillars of Hercules, the
Pillars of Hercules, the
June 1999, Penguin Books
in Spanish
Cover of: Pillars of Hercules
Pillars of Hercules
October 29, 1996, Ballantine Books
in English
Cover of: The Pillars of Hercules
The Pillars of Hercules: a grand tour of the Mediterranean
1995, G.P. Putnam's Sons
in English
Cover of: The pillars of Hercules:a grand tour of the Mediterranean
The pillars of Hercules:a grand tour of the Mediterranean
1995, Hamilton
in English
Cover of: The Pillars of Hercules
The Pillars of Hercules: a grand tour of the Mediterranean
1995, G.P. Putnam's Sons
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Published in
New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
910.91822
Library of Congress
D973 .T54 1995, D973 .T54 1996, D973.T54 1995

The Physical Object

Pagination
ix, 509 p. ;
Number of pages
509

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL24732649M
Internet Archive
pillarsofhercule00ther
ISBN 10
0399141081
LCCN
95032786
OCLC/WorldCat
32779327

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History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
July 18, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
October 30, 2023 Edited by Tom Morris Merge works
March 1, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 18, 2021 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
October 15, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page