I am currently on page 588, right in the middle of the book. Rebecca West's detailed account of Serbian history is beginning to seriously overwhelm me.

It feels as if I'm being suffocated by the weight of all this information. I have come to the conclusion that it might be best for me to stop reading for now.

I simply don't have the courage to endure another 500 pages of this.

However, I do hope that perhaps at a later date, when I'm in a different frame of mind or have more background knowledge, I'll be able to pick up this book again and continue my journey through Rebecca West's exploration of Serbian history.

Until then, I'll set it aside and focus on other things.

There is no doubt that this book is a classic. Those who don't appreciate it either haven't read it or are overly prejudiced. Its 1,100 wonderful pages are filled with wisdom, historical accounts, relevant personal experiences, wit, humor, love of literature, and personal humility. Despising it is an act of intellectual suicide.

Rebecca West must have been a unique woman, understanding and forgiving. She explores various topics in this travel book. There are passages that are so interesting and well-written that they should earn her a place among the best writers in the English language.

I would like to choose two extracts from this nice Penguin Classics edition. One is a charming and down-to-earth rationalization of xenophobia:

'She was the gentlest and sweetest of women and for that reason had developed a most peculiar form of hysteria. Perhaps because of her experience as a tiny child in the war she was a true xenophobe, she could not imagine anything more disgusting than a member of another race than her own. But she did not like to feel anything but love for her fellow-creatures, so she transformed her loathing for them into a belief that they exude powerful and most unpleasant odours.. This belief made her life as a chambermaid an extraordinary olfactory adventure, for to this hotel there came people of all nationalities. [...] The Hungarians seemed to her to have a strong smell, which, however, was not unpleasant, only extremely different from the smell a human being ought to exhale. But the Germans and Austrians were definitely very gross in her nostrils, and the French smelt wicked and puzzling, as I imagine a chemist's shop might to a country woman who knew the uses of hardly any of the articles it exhibited.'

Or this one:

'There are those who sourly remark that Bolshevism was made in such rooms. It is not true. The Russian exiles who were responsible for that sat on unmade beds in flats as untidy as Versailles or any medieval castle. They were the powerful people who never tidy up, who only happened for the moment to be out of power. But those who live in these wept and garnished rooms wish only to serve. In the hereafter they shall be saved when all the rest of us are damned.' Eloquent, isn't it?

And what about this almost mystical passage:

'In too many Western pictures Christ looks as if He were wholly dying, and as if He were making an unmanly fuss over it considering His foreknowledge of the Resurrection. But in all these Macedonian frescoes death is shown working on the body that is bound to the spirit of Christ, wringing the breath out of the lungs as a laundress wrings water out of a shirt, taking the power out of the muscles and nerves like a dentist drawing a tooth whose roots drive down through the whole body. There is demonstrated that separateness of the flesh which Proust once noted, in a passage which describes how we think in our youth that our bodies are identical with ourselves, and have the same interests, but discover later in life that they are heartless companions who have been accidentally yoked with us, and who are as likely as not in our extreme sickness or old age to treat us with less mercy than we would have received at the hands of the worst bandits.'

This book must be read slowly, like a fine wine, to fully appreciate its depth and beauty.

I would have given 5 stars to this magnificently wide-ranging, openly opinionated, and vividly descriptive tome. However, due to the repetitive authorial obsessions and excessively long historical passages, both of which tend to disrupt the well-described travelogue aspects, I had to adjust my rating. It's a 6-star read for anyone who has truly read it without skimming.

The author presents millennia of Balkan, Byzantine, and Ottoman history to shed light on the past and the 1930s present of the lands that make up post-Versailles Yugoslavia, through which she traveled extensively. Like the best travel writing, this is more of an almost confessional revelation of the author herself, a deep-thinking, emotionally responsive, and recognizably modern woman in her independence of thought.

She is almost a dramatist, painter, or opera-composer in her impressionistic descriptions of key scenes or dramatic events, involving the reader in crucial moments in history or her own travels to illustrate historical or cultural points. For example, the black lamb of the title and the man holding it in full peasant costume in the foyer of a top-grade Belgrade hotel, which arouses no particular interest among the businessman clientele, is used to show that Serbia was at its core a country of farmers.

There still seem to be few neutral opinions in the Balkans, and the author illustrates and exemplifies long-lived folk memories that are literally deadly relevant today. Her combative and opinionated approach is in tune with her subject matter.

She also covers a wide range of ecclesiastical and architectural matters, opening a window for me into the ethos and aesthetics of the Orthodox traditions, such as the importance of light in the dark and the significance of icons.

There are unforgettably well-described historical tableaux, such as the slain heads of trophy animals in Sarajevo Town Hall as Franz Joseph makes his formal, and as she sees it, provocative entry just before being shot himself. Or the sight of an ethnic Albanian wife carrying half a plough on her back, apparently with good cheer and passively, behind her husband in Pristina. Or the various assassinations or forced abdications of Serbian royalty.

In contrast to such vivid focus, several times the author's feuding with her German traveling companion is described and indulged in, which comes across as petty and a waste of narrative space in an already long book. It's possible that her antagonist is a fictional foil, but it didn't work for me.

The historical passages are thorough and relevant but sometimes too long for their place in the overall travelogue.

I greatly enjoyed her spirited and openly campaigning approach to the issues arising from fascist expansionism in the 1930s, and her ringing postscript call to arms at the time of publication when Britain herself stood alone, just after Yugoslavia had effectively committed state suicide by refusing to bow to Nazi ultimatums that would have led to subservience. The idea being that nations which fight and are defeated rise again, whereas those which capitulate are lost.

There are moments of grim irony, but also quiet observational humor throughout. For example, when being rowed towards a secluded island monastery in a lake, a dog is already heard from very far away: "If this dog had a fault...".

The book could, with caution, be used as part of the background reading into the history of the ex-Yugoslav states and the relationships between ethnic groups today in the Balkans. Why were British peace-keeping troops in the 1990s stoned in Salonika by Greek youths when entraining for a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo? Well, the book gives useful background. In the light of post-Yugoslavia events, her partisanship of Serbia will not be palatable to many, but the history gave me some insight into, for example, why specifically German recognition in 1991 of a seceding Croatia caused such consternation in Serbia, and sadly justified concern for respective minorities across the whole of former Yugoslavia.

The book is long, opinionated, ultimately fascinating, often annoying, instructive, frequently entertaining, and generally very well-written.

According to Alan Jacobs, it is "very possibly the greatest book of the 20th century." His review can be found here. He also points out that the introduction by Christopher Hitchens is a "hit piece on the author" and is worth skipping. (Although I would read it anyway.)

I am surprised that I had never heard of this book before. I am particularly interested in it because my parents currently live in the Balkans (Albania), and my family was just weeks away from moving to Sarajevo in 1991 when the war broke out in Yugoslavia and we were relocated to Warsaw. I suspect that this would be a valuable companion book for those who have read and enjoyed Island of the World.

It is fascinating to think about how a book can provide insights and perspectives on a region that holds personal significance. Given my family's connection to the Balkans, I am eager to explore this book and see what it has to offer. Maybe it will help me better understand the complex history and culture of that area.

I look forward to delving into the pages of this book and uncovering its treasures. Who knows what new knowledge and understanding I will gain from reading it? It could potentially be a life-changing experience.

Over the past several years, I have made three attempts to read this book. This time, I finally managed to get through it. Since July 22, 2019, I have been reading it at an approximate rate of 5 pages per day, with some breaks in between. I have no clue how I will write a review of it, but I will give it a try soon. For now, I can say that the effort I put into reading it was more than repaid by the unknown history I learned, the deep understanding of the human condition it presented, and the foundation it provided for me to read books set in and written by the many writers from what was once called Yugoslavia. I finished today with a sense of having a huge burden lifted from my shoulders and a feeling of wonder at what Rebecca West accomplished.

My actual review, written a month later:
I am fully aware that this book may not be to everyone's taste, but I wanted to record my thoughts on it here. Finishing this book has been my greatest reading achievement so far this year. I had tried to read it twice before but got stuck early on both occasions. Last July, I gave it another go, looking up all the words I didn't know, studying maps, and taking notes. I set myself a minimum pace of 5 pages at a time, and 11 months later, I finally finished!
Rebecca West was a famously successful journalist, political writer, novelist, and feminist from 1911 until her death in 1983. I was introduced to her through one of her novels, The Fountain Overflows, which is one of my all-time favorite novels. I first learned about Black Lamb and Grey Falcon during the Bosnian War, a conflict that I could never understand no matter how much news I read. It turns out that I needed the history of the Balkans, and West's book provided that and much more.
She made two extended trips through Yugoslavia, an area also known as the Balkans throughout history. When she visited in 1937 and 1938, the area was a拼凑起来的国家 created after WWI at the Paris Peace Conference. Her book follows the second journey she took with her husband.
Beginning in Croatia, they continued through Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. These were the countries that made up Yugoslavia at the time. They visited major cities as well as villages and historic sites. If that sounds like a lot to take in, it was for both Ms West and myself.
One of my followers didn't like the writing style. She does tend to use long sentences, detailed descriptions, and somewhat flowery, emotional reactions to what she sees and how she feels about it all. However, I didn't mind that too much. After all, what else would one expect from someone who was raised on Shakespeare and Dickens?
Whenever I looked up images of the mountains, valleys, cathedrals, and monasteries she described, they looked exactly as she had written about them! Her accounts of the people she met brought them to life just like a novelist would with her characters.
When she returned to England in 1938, Hitler was on the rise. She was certain that another World War was about to begin. She spent the next few years expanding her already extensive knowledge of the history of those countries, from Roman times, through the Byzantine Empire, the conquering Turks, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the disaster that was WWI, and the arrival of communism from Russia. I can't imagine anyone other than a lifelong historian being able to cover so much.
Finally, she put it all together in Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, two images that recur throughout the book. She created her own perspective on the historical precedents and causes of what, by the time of publication, was WWII. When I finished the book, even though I hadn't read an article on the Serbian War or the Kosovo War for over 20 years, it all suddenly made sense to me.
I don't recommend this hefty tome to everyone. However, if you enjoy studying history, have read widely in historical fiction, or simply have an insatiable desire to understand European history, you might be able to make it through and gain new insights.
Rebecca West was a liberal, a feminist, a humanist thinker, and I can't imagine anyone completely agreeing with her politically in 2020. Nevertheless, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a significant contribution to historical and political thought.
If you managed to make it to the end of my attempt to write about this incredible book, you should do well with Rebecca West, who surpassed me in both writing and thinking ability.

It's a beautifully written book that combines elements of humor, travel, and memoir. It offers a unique perspective from a time and place on the other side of an abyss. I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

She is opinionated, and while sometimes she may be wrong in her beliefs about racial characteristics, she is never dull. She has a remarkable ability to evoke people, places, and things, such as the smell of narcissi in the mist, the mosaics in a church, and the face of a woman seeking meaning in her life on the mountain.

More than anything, it reminds me of Auden's September 1st 1939. West's work here is like accurate scholarship, unearthing the offenses that have driven a culture mad. If she has a strong fondness for Byzantium and Serbs and a hatred for Austria, it's understandable considering the time she was writing (1938 - 1940, having made the trip in 1937).

Since then, a lot of history has unfolded, especially in the Balkans, and there is an element of looking at things from the wrong perspective. Reading about a happy lunch with an older Jewish couple in Sarajevo and their tacky bathroom decorations suddenly turns horrifying when one realizes the fate that befell them at the hands of the Nazis.

This is a beautiful and useful book that captures a moment of culture, a moment in time, and a human being's journey through history. It makes one reflect on the power of art, as when she mentions listening to Mozart during the Blitz. I think it would be taken more seriously if the author were a man.

There's no particular reason I read this now rather than before, but I encourage others to read it for the sheer joy it brings.

I embarked on this book two years ago and appropriately completed it while being back in my hometown of Montenegro.

It is by far the longest book I have ever read, and it is an amazing piece of travel writing from the late 1930s!

I am completely charmed by the quality of the text. West has a remarkable way of describing the energy of places and people. She does so in a manner that draws references to food, flowers, colours, sensations, and even other literature.

At times, she may overly romanticize and exoticize the Balkans as some sort of mystic or oriental region. However, despite this, it was still an absolute delight to read.

The book takes the reader on a captivating journey through the Balkans, painting a vivid picture of the landscapes, cultures, and people.

It is a must-read for anyone interested in travel, history, or literature.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique and engaging read.

Maybe I had extremely high expectations for this book. Perhaps I was overly ambitious in attempting to read it in English, which is my second language. However, the truth is that it was a significant disappointment.

To be fair, I did gain some knowledge about the history of the region. I even wrote down several places to visit. I also concur with certain views regarding Croatians, and some of the stories related to these people and the land are indeed remarkable. Nevertheless, I believe the author is rather snobbish, and her writing style makes the book difficult to read, especially considering that English is not my first language. She seems to be overly influenced by Serbian nationalism, which, in my opinion, distorts her perspective on the situation of Yugoslavia in the 1930s. Additionally, since the book was published in 1942, there are some speculations and opinions expressed by the author that seem rather dated. All the German characters are portrayed as pathetic and ridiculous.

From my perspective, the worst aspect of the book is the author's opinions glorifying the poverty of Yugoslavia. She contends that these people have been safeguarding their culture and traditions, even though they are just poor peasants, and thus they are closer to the real, authentic life and nature. There is something about this view, which is quite prevalent nowadays, that I find utterly repulsive. For instance, I cannot fathom how she can be amused by seeing a homeless Turk in Skopje simply because he is wearing a fez. (The author argues that this way he adheres to his traditions.) No, that is truly horrifying, and we should strive to assist him in leading a better life, rather than taking pleasure in his pain and suffering. And this sort of thing occurs repeatedly throughout the book.

A magnum opus! Travel through Yugoslavia with Rebecca West. This remarkable journey offers a unique perspective on a country rich in history, culture, and natural beauty.

Rebecca West, a renowned writer and journalist, takes us on an unforgettable adventure through the diverse landscapes of Yugoslavia. From the bustling cities to the peaceful countryside, we encounter a wide range of people and experiences.

As we travel with West, we are treated to her vivid descriptions of the architecture, art, and traditions that make Yugoslavia so special. We learn about the country's complex history, from its ancient roots to its modern-day struggles.

Whether you are a history buff, a culture lover, or simply someone who enjoys a good travelogue, this book is a must-read. So come along and discover the beauty and mystery of Yugoslavia with Rebecca West.

This book is truly brutal.

It seems as if no book should require half a million words to be haphazardly stuffed together on newsprint. Moreover, it can't seem to make up its mind about what it desires to be. Is it a travelogue? A pulpit for preaching? Or perhaps a history book? I managed to struggle through 500 pages before finally throwing in the towel.

To be fair, I did really enjoy learning certain snippets of history within its pages. However, it is quite evident that the writer should have engaged in more self-editing. There is just so much extraneous and unnecessary content that detracts from the overall quality and readability of the book. It's a shame really, as with some proper pruning and refinement, it could have been a much more engaging and worthwhile read.

This book is truly a battleground, much like the Balkans. It is simply impossible to read it without getting embroiled in some sort of dispute over one question or another. No matter how peace-loving you may be, Rebecca West will surely give you a reason to take up arms. However, despite her prejudices and strong opinions, I never once felt that she was deliberately挑起 a quarrel or saying things she didn't wholeheartedly believe in. This cannot but inspire respect. Although, if you agree with everything she says in this book, I'll start to think you're her clone.

There are, of course, sweeping generalizations. After all, this is a description of an entire country based on just a couple of visits, each lasting a few months. But, curiously, many of these generalizations pertain to Britain back home or Western Europe as she knows it. The Slavs who inhabit the country of her dreams are minutely differentiated from each other, socially, geographically, and linguistically.

Also, her passionate recriminations are almost always directed at entities, social groups, or ideologies. Once you get to know the individual people, they often turn out to have a redeeming quality or an inner integrity that prevents you from despising them, even when the social group they represent or the idea they cherish seems hopelessly wrong to you. This is perhaps one of the features of this book (or the author herself, since this is all about her) that strongly resonated with me.

No wonder this book doesn't have a large following nowadays. In this age of political correctness, West's strong expressions are jarring, especially considering that many of them deal with ethnic differences, her dislike of Islam, and her mistrust of homosexuality. This is something that needs to be examined in her other books: does she adhere to that people-over-ideas rule?

In this one, she doesn't hate someone because they are Muslim, but rather deplores the Ottoman rule and glorifies the Balkan peoples for stopping the Muslim expansion. She doesn't disapprove of any one person who prefers the company of their own sex in bed, but attributes many of the deficiencies of Western civilization, as she sees them, to the acceptance of homosexuality as a social fact.

The writing style is delightful (one of her favorite words, by the way). In more than a thousand pages, it was only two or three times that I felt the word choice was inappropriate or had to reread a phrase to understand her meaning.

I spent seven months immersed in these pages. They influenced my choice of other reading materials and colored my perception of them. And I will never regret that.

Years ago, I happened to come across a book authored by Robert D. Kaplan. The book was titled Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History.

This remarkable work had such a profound impact on me that it inspired me to take on the challenge of reading this rather hefty volume. It was no easy feat, and it took me a considerable amount of time to finally make my way through it.

The reason it took me so long might have been due to the fact that my copy had a truly horrible typeface, which made the reading experience a bit more difficult.

However, I must emphasize that you shouldn't let these minor drawbacks deter you. Don't be intimidated by the fact that the book has over 1100 pages. This book is an absolute gem. It is absorbing, interesting, and incredibly compelling.

As you read through its pages, you will be able to witness the incredible diversity of the Balkan region. You will also gain a deeper understanding of the great injustice that the European powers inflicted upon the Balkans with the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Moreover, you can even sense the storm clouds gathering and spreading out from Germany.

I truly loved this book, and it has left me with a burning desire to read more histories of some of these fascinating states.