Tag Archives: Balkans

Field of the Blackbirds

Posted on August 27, 2004 by sheila

In Black Lamb and Grey Falcon they have now reached the Kosovo Polye (or Polje), aka “Field of the Blackbirds” – the scene of the defeat of the Serbs against the Turks in 1389. Losing at Kosovo Polye meant centuries … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: an excerpt

Posted on August 25, 2004 by sheila

This is part of the chapter I read this morning. I’ve got a ton of thoughts about it all, but I’m not sure how to put it into words. In this excerpt, Rebecca West and her husband stop at a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Sarajevo, 1914

Posted on June 19, 2004 by sheila

This morning I finished the chapter in Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in the streets of Sarajevo in June, 1914. Now, the book is amazing, in pretty much every way (content, writing-style, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Rebecca West on Croatia

Posted on June 8, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: Well, what did all this story mean to the people in Croatia, the people I was looking at, the people who had been selling me things? I had come to Yugoslavia because I … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

“But now Luckeni is Mussolini”

Posted on June 8, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: More on the killing of the King of Yugoslavia: I knew, of course, how and why the murder [of the King of Yugoslavia] had happened. Lucheni [the Italian assassin who killed Express Elizabeth … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on “But now Luckeni is Mussolini”

The assassination of the King of Yugoslavia

Posted on June 8, 2004 by sheila

Excerpt from Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: The assassination of the King of Yugoslavia in Marseille, which Rebecca West hears about from her sick-bed in the hospital, is what triggers her second visit to the Balkans. She knows she MUST … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, by Rebecca West

Posted on June 8, 2004 by sheila

On Black Lamb and Grey Falcon – about Rebecca West’s travels through Yugoslavia in 1937. The length of the book was what originally kept me from launching into it, even though so many people who I admire love Rebecca West, … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

20th Century Czechoslovakia

Posted on February 7, 2003 by sheila

The 20th century This is mercilessly long. Just a little heads-up. But it is such a great story. Post World War I… World War I ended with the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Czechs, free at last, won … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellania | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Czech Republic

Posted on February 5, 2003 by sheila

Things stay the same in the Czech Republic (or Bohemia, or Czechoslovakia, or whatever name it is known by), for a long long time. Centuries sometimes. And then – suddenly – everything collapses, spectacularly, in a matter of 2 weeks. … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellania | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Focus on Croatia

Posted on December 19, 2002 by sheila

Zagreb Rebecca West’s classic travelogue of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, begins at the railway station in Zagreb, Croatia, 1937. Robert Kaplan, following her trail in 1989, begins his book Balkan Ghosts at the same railway station. In 1918, … Continue reading →

Posted in Miscellania | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment