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The Path to Rome

hilaire belloc

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Considered by Belloc himself, and by most critics, his greatest work, this classic book is the delightful story of the pilgrimage Belloc made on foot to Rome in order to fulfill a vow he had made to "...see all Europe which the Christian Faith has saved..." In his Life of Hilaire Belloc, Robert Speaight states: "More than any other book he ever wrote, The Path to Rome made Belloc's name; more than any other, it has been lovelingly thumbed and pondered... The book is a classic, born of something far deeper than the physical experience it records."

178 pages, Paperback

First published December 21,1902

This edition

Format
178 pages, Paperback
Published
November 3, 2006 by Hard Press
ISBN
9781406938678
ASIN
140693867X
Language
English

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About the author

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hilaire belloc

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Hilaire Belloc was a French-British writer, historian, poet, and orator, known for his sharp wit, extensive literary output, and strong political and religious convictions. Born in France to a French father and an English mother, he was educated at Oxford, where he distinguished himself as a debater and scholar. Throughout his career, he wrote prolifically across a wide range of genres, producing histories, essays, travelogues, poetry, and satirical works.
Among his best-known writings are Cautionary Tales for Children, a collection of humorous yet dark moral verses, and his historical works, which often reflected his staunch Catholicism and critique of Protestant interpretations of history. He was a leading advocate of distributism, an economic theory promoting small-scale property ownership as a middle ground between capitalism and socialism, which he championed alongside his close friend G.K. Chesterton.
In politics, Belloc served as a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party but grew disillusioned with the political establishment. His polemical style and strong opinions made him a controversial figure, particularly in his critiques of modernism, secularism, and financial capitalism, which he viewed as threats to traditional Christian society.
Belloc's literary legacy is vast, and his influence extends into both historical and literary circles. His writing, characterized by erudition, humor, and a forceful rhetorical style, continues to be studied and appreciated for its intellectual vigor and unique perspective on history, society, and human nature.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.8 / 5.0, 52 votes)
5 stars
11(21%)
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52 reviews All reviews
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Eldyn
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This is one of Belloc's walking books. His first one, where he describes his journey from England to Rome. Wonderfully funny and insightful as he describes his encounters and difficulties making the trek. Plus it is a bit quirky in how this is all related. I was grinning throughout this read.

I also better understand those who love this book have read it multiple times.
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Zurokyn
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Stylistically dated, more bombastic than Chesterton, but entertaining nonetheless.
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Skylarker
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I really enjoyed this book. Belloc is a great writer, witty, self-deprecating and somewhat mad. Yes he does go on about religion a bit and he can go off on lengthy digressions but these are easily skipped over.

The heart of the book is in his encounters with the people he meets on his journey, I laughed out aloud on a number of occasions. A great book, looking forward to reading his account of the Pyrenees next.
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Zeniatus
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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this book has been in continual print for over 100 years and I always keep it on my bedside table
love it so much
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CookieBun
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A four-star book with one star removed for the didactic preaching and closed-mindedness (and the whiff of misogyny). The descriptive passages are wonderful, often sublime, and the fact of the journey itself -- to undertake to walk from northeastern France to Rome in a straight line (through the Swiss Alps!) -- is fantastic and marvellous.
Along with the sublime descriptive passages (his description of his first view of the Alps made me catch my breath and mark the passage to copy and save), a treasure of this book is the time in European history in which it takes place. Belloc made this journey at the turn of the 1900s (the first publication in Great Britain was 1902), and it was bittersweet to read of his crossing blithely from one country to another with neither passport nor identification papers, and passing through a Europe peaceful and innocent of the two shattering wars that were just a few years in the future.
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ricardo2
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Belloc writes as if the reader is a good friend. I'm sure I would have enjoyed chats with him, Someday....
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SamIHellaAm
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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A wonderful paean to the wanderings--a pilgrimage in Belloc's words-of a young man just graduated from Oxford. Belloc decides to walk from the Alsace/Mosel Valley to Rome, in as straight a line as possible. This vow leads to various privations and difficulties--notably crossing the Alps into Italy--but also the melancholy that comes from seeing sights and meeting people which one is likely never to see again, and which provides a kind of youthful nostalgia very resonant with those of us who have wandered across continents as young and financially challenged young persons as well.

While Belloc becomes a little mixed up between his drawings, occasional poems and songs, and relatively unrelated stories that come to his mind, his wonder at the beauty of the countryside, at the (mostly) honest efforts of the peasants and small town innkeepers, and the pull of the glory and past of Italy and Rome make this book well worth reading.

Among the many beautiful passages is one that describes the passage of a cold dismal night in the rough into the present glory of a new day:

"Then suddenly he sky grew lighter upon every side. That cheating gloom...lifted from the valley as though a slow order given by some calm and good influence that was marshalling the day. Their colours came back to things; the trees recovered their shape, life and trembling; here and there, on the face of the mountain opposite, the mists by their movement took part in the new life, and I thought I heard for the first time the tumbling of water far below me in the ravine. That subtle barrier was drawn which marks to-day from yesterday; all the night and its despondency became the past and entered memory. The road before me...had become mixed with the increasing light, that is, into the familiar and invigorating Present which I have always found capable of opening the doors of the future with a gesture of victory."
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Throttlee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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As a young man Belloc had trekked across 19th century America to woo and win his wife, Elodie. In 1901, he challenged himself to walk from Toul, in eastern France to Rome, Italy—in a straight line, right across the map, more than 500 miles. He very nearly managed to pull off this stunt, hiking straight up over the peaks of the Jura mountains, but a blizzard in the Alps forced him to detour through a pass. The story of his journey, The Path to Rome is part comic epic, part spiritual pilgrimage.... Read the full review at https://catholicreads.com/2019/03/16/...
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