This was both a joy to read, and at the same time something to marvel at. I couldn't help but imagine that this voyage would be so different today. Would any strangers today rent him a bed and a meal?

After nearly 20 years of reading Belloc, he still doesn't disappoint (which same cannot be said of old GKC, I'm afraid, except for his fiction). And this is certainly one of Hilaire's best.

Glorious! Filled with the sheer gusto and pure joie de vivre of the younger Belloc. Not as profound, perhaps, as the older, wiser, grimmer Belloc - but quite simply wonderful.

I hope to review this at more length at the growing Hilaire Belloc section of my blog: http://corjesusacratissimum.org/tag/h... (which I shamelessly plug for any fellow friends of beloved HB who love him like I do ...)

I read this together with my husband. The author is the biggest grouch, drinks altogether too much wine, and profoundly despises tourists. He is at the same time laugh-out-loud funny and deeply philosophical. It was fascinating to experience a pilgrimage on foot across a large part of Europe at a time when tourism as we know it today did not exist. We loved following his path on the map, and now want to visit some of the obscure places he passed through we never even knew existed!

Published in 1902. Belloc, like Patrick Leigh Fermor and a few other daring souls, decided to walk across Europe and his journey to Rome over the Alps is amazing. His account of hiking up a misty mountain near Interlaken and, when the clouds parted, realized that the path had ended and he was on a precipice just about to step out over a drop of thousands of feet into the lake below, is stunning. He vividly describes the mountains, vistas and his fellow travelers make this one of my favorite travel books.

But I digress. A lot. A travelogue of sorts as the author walks on a pilgrimage from France to Rome, and keeps himself entertained along the way. I find his description of the places along the route and his own ink drawings to be entertaining.

This is supposedly Belloc's best book and, by his own admission, his personal favorite, but it's not my favorite Belloc book. This is like a 1900's version of Bill Bryson's 'A Walk in the Woods'. There is, however, greatness in his blunt honesty and confidence. I like his history books better.

Belloc takes the reader with him on his pilgrimage from Toul, France to Rome with his musings, drawings, and songs. It’s a lovely read for his style; rather than a solitary journey, Belloc makes you feel as if you’re in conversation with a company of voices with ‘lector’ and ‘auctor’ and the unforgettable characters he meets along the way. It’s a celebration of what he loved of old Europe with its bucolic countryside and local wines. Published in 1904, it preserves an eternal image of these towns, soon to o be ravaged by two world wars ,as they would never be again. I was not at all surprised to learnt that this book was the most financially successful of all his works.

Getting through this book felt like a similar slog as the author had on his journey to Rome. In his preface he goes about using as much 'clever' language to show you just how smart and nuanced he is as an author. Of course folks like Chesterton and Waugh were able to do this with an effortlessness that makes their work enjoyable.

There were little moments in this journey that were captivating, especially when he was able to focus on the local people and places of his trip, but his endless philosophizing on the march from northern France through the Alps, and down into Italy had me leafing through the pages quicker than I had wished.

The edition I read included his sketches that he made along the way; so in this particular case, I'd say I read the book for the pictures. They were quite nice and really enhanced those moments of the journey where he talked about the natural splendor of an area and captured a quick image of it.

I also thought the whole point was that he was on a pilgrimage to reach a particular church by a particular day to celebrate a mass in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul, and instead it felt like he got to Rome and just quit the tale. It would have been nice if he had carried it through to at least his arrival at the mass which he had set out to attend.

I just had a hard time engaging with this book, and unless you really wanted the philosophical musings of this author I wouldn't really recommend it.

3.5*

It's dated, but still very fine. I'd forgotten how satirical Belloc could be and I loved his asides to the reader. My favourite quote: 'So to make a long story short, as the publisher said when he published the popular edition of PAMELA...'

A very good friend loved this book and gave it to me to read. It was written in the 50s and the language reflects that. I can see why he liked it. There are a lot of ideas developed but it’s just not my kind of read.