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Perseus in the Wind
Perseus in the Wind
169 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
8 people are currently reading
309 people want to read
About the author
Freya Stark
128 books177 followersFreya Stark was born in Paris, where her parents were studying art. Her mother, Flora, was an Italian of Polish/German descent; her father, Robert, an English painter from Devon.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 18, 2019
Though it may be unessential to the imagination, travel is necessary to an understanding of men. Only with long experience and the opening of his wares on many a beach where his language is not spoken, will the merchant come to know the worth of what he carries, and what is parochial and what is universal in his choice. Such delicate goods as justice, love and honour, courtesy, and indeed all the things we care for, are valid everywhere; but they are variously moulded and often differently handled, and sometimes nearly unrecognizable if you meet them in a foreign land; and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.
Perseus in the Wind was my first foray into Stark's writing but will certainly not be my last.
I enjoyed every single meditation Stark included in this collection of short essays. Some I enjoyed as novelties, some I disagreed with, some made me think, some just spoke to me, but all of them were beautiful in their own right.
Stark points our herself that she was not formally educated and that her thoughts are merely that - her own take, but when she writes, it feels like she's used her observations of humanity to pin point some very essential truths.
And yes, I loved the writing, too.
Perseus in the Wind was my first foray into Stark's writing but will certainly not be my last.
I enjoyed every single meditation Stark included in this collection of short essays. Some I enjoyed as novelties, some I disagreed with, some made me think, some just spoke to me, but all of them were beautiful in their own right.
Stark points our herself that she was not formally educated and that her thoughts are merely that - her own take, but when she writes, it feels like she's used her observations of humanity to pin point some very essential truths.
And yes, I loved the writing, too.
November 1, 2014
This is the first thing I've eve read from Freya Stark and I have to wonder how I never stumbled upon her sooner. Even now I picked her up from the travel literature shelf only because I liked her name.
I'm very glad that I did though. I measure books among other things by the number of ideas it introduces, and there was something to think about in every one of the twenty chapter-essays.
I will surely be rereading it sometime in the future.
I'm very glad that I did though. I measure books among other things by the number of ideas it introduces, and there was something to think about in every one of the twenty chapter-essays.
I will surely be rereading it sometime in the future.
March 29, 2025
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf since I was 15 and finally decided to pick it up. What I thought was going to be a quick easy autobiographical-travel read to get me into a good groove turned out to be a slough of an essay collection that took me nearly a month to trudge my way through. But why even give three stars then Emma, for these measly 160 pages of borderline boredom (you ask)? I’m hard pressed not to give a little star action for the way this book objectively provides insight into the mindscape of a remarkable and well traveled woman born in the 1890s. It’s getting knocked some stars because the majority of this book is just philosophical, yawn-worthy, meandering prose (and not in whimsical way) stewed in arrogance and condescension for anyone or any way of living that does not align with herself. But I appreciate the opportunity to read any woman’s thoughts from past generations, and most importantly, when this book is good it is soooo gooood. The atmosphere she can create is at times so vivid and lush, and there are SELECT stories and musings in here (e.g. her grandfather’s passing on the mountain, her silent walks with her father, the divine happiness in craftwork) which have stayed with me. And then I remember that chapter on Service. Yikes.
April 7, 2020
I found parts of this book to be insightful and beautifully written (I loved the essay on Education). Other parts were so tedious that I found my mind wandering and was surprised to reach the end of a chapter having no idea what I’d just read.
Of course you also need to understand that the book is of its time, and try to ignore such statements as “Men, being on the whole more intelligent than women......”. WHAT??!!
I still do want to read more of Stark, particularly regarding her travels through Persia and the Middle East.
Of course you also need to understand that the book is of its time, and try to ignore such statements as “Men, being on the whole more intelligent than women......”. WHAT??!!
I still do want to read more of Stark, particularly regarding her travels through Persia and the Middle East.
January 12, 2023
I wanted to love this book, and thought I would. Some of the language is exquisite, images layer on images, particularly when she is describing her experiences in nature. It truly is poetry in the guise of prose and possibly bears rereading for the joy of the language alone. Possibly The book is a series of essays on philosophical topics: Happiness, Death, Beauty, Education, Travel, Old Age, and so forth. And the essays are very personal, reflecting a lifetime of travel, of advantage, of adventure, and clearly of reading the classics.
Several things kept me from rating it more highly. First, while I love the fact that each essay begins with half a dozen or so quotations from books Stark appears to know intimately (she didn't Google quotations on [insert topic]), one would have to read French, German, Italian, Latin, and old English to understand them. The book would benefit from more extensive notes at the back for those of us who don't have that facility. And many of the quotations themselves are phrases that don't clearly connect with the topic they purport to prepare us for. The connection is clearly in Stark's mind but didn't often translate to this reader's understanding. For example: leading the chapter on "Happiness" is, among others, a quotation from Yeats' "The Two Trees," "The surety of its hidden root has planted quiet in the night." Now reading that poem, the one tree being referred to is the holy tree of joy, and the poet counsels paying attention to that aspect of life rather than focusing on the negative. However, there are better lines from that poem to possibly connect to the theme of "happiness." Or this from the chapter on "Sorrow" ... "... the vast shadow of the temple still stood between him and the sun ... ". That would be George Santayana Character and Opinion in the USA. Talk about opaque! Or this from St. Jerome heading the essay on "Love," "Dye your wool once purple and what water will cleanse it of that stain?" Say what??? And I could make a similar analysis for literally several dozen of the quotations heading the essays. The connections are so deeply personal that one would have to be a mind reader to ascertain what triggered Stark to include them so prominently. They certainly don't shed light on the topic they purport to. So the quotations and some of her observations about humankind seem to be coming from a place of disdain for mere mortals.
Stark tends to be very judgmental and quite self-assured in her judgments. My jaw dropped open at "Men being on the whole more intelligent than women ..." This from a woman who made the world her home, who traveled widely, who engaged in causes, who commanded a vast amount of knowledge. So in Stark we have yet another woman who sees herself as exceptional and her sisters not so much. And she has equal disdain, apparently, for introverts, for those who choose to pull back from society; she considers such mingling essential before anyone can have much of anything of value to contribute. All I could think of while reading that chapter ("The Artist") was Emily Dickinson, who produced some of our greatest poetry, including "The Soul selects her own Society — The — shuts the Door". So, I find Stark rather arrogant and sometimes condescending to others.
And finally, I wasn't persuaded by her reasoning which was so often couched in such turgid prose that her meanings are unclear. Would it really be worth it to devote hours upon hours teasing them out, along with typing quotations into Google Translate and locating the fragments of quotations within the larger works to try to understand why she thought to include them. Is this book worth a concordance or exegesis? I think not. Not for the few wonderful insights buried in the rest. Frankly the best parts of this book for me were her more down to earth accounts of her family life, her autobiography as it were, and finishing it.
Several things kept me from rating it more highly. First, while I love the fact that each essay begins with half a dozen or so quotations from books Stark appears to know intimately (she didn't Google quotations on [insert topic]), one would have to read French, German, Italian, Latin, and old English to understand them. The book would benefit from more extensive notes at the back for those of us who don't have that facility. And many of the quotations themselves are phrases that don't clearly connect with the topic they purport to prepare us for. The connection is clearly in Stark's mind but didn't often translate to this reader's understanding. For example: leading the chapter on "Happiness" is, among others, a quotation from Yeats' "The Two Trees," "The surety of its hidden root has planted quiet in the night." Now reading that poem, the one tree being referred to is the holy tree of joy, and the poet counsels paying attention to that aspect of life rather than focusing on the negative. However, there are better lines from that poem to possibly connect to the theme of "happiness." Or this from the chapter on "Sorrow" ... "... the vast shadow of the temple still stood between him and the sun ... ". That would be George Santayana Character and Opinion in the USA. Talk about opaque! Or this from St. Jerome heading the essay on "Love," "Dye your wool once purple and what water will cleanse it of that stain?" Say what??? And I could make a similar analysis for literally several dozen of the quotations heading the essays. The connections are so deeply personal that one would have to be a mind reader to ascertain what triggered Stark to include them so prominently. They certainly don't shed light on the topic they purport to. So the quotations and some of her observations about humankind seem to be coming from a place of disdain for mere mortals.
Stark tends to be very judgmental and quite self-assured in her judgments. My jaw dropped open at "Men being on the whole more intelligent than women ..." This from a woman who made the world her home, who traveled widely, who engaged in causes, who commanded a vast amount of knowledge. So in Stark we have yet another woman who sees herself as exceptional and her sisters not so much. And she has equal disdain, apparently, for introverts, for those who choose to pull back from society; she considers such mingling essential before anyone can have much of anything of value to contribute. All I could think of while reading that chapter ("The Artist") was Emily Dickinson, who produced some of our greatest poetry, including "The Soul selects her own Society — The — shuts the Door". So, I find Stark rather arrogant and sometimes condescending to others.
And finally, I wasn't persuaded by her reasoning which was so often couched in such turgid prose that her meanings are unclear. Would it really be worth it to devote hours upon hours teasing them out, along with typing quotations into Google Translate and locating the fragments of quotations within the larger works to try to understand why she thought to include them. Is this book worth a concordance or exegesis? I think not. Not for the few wonderful insights buried in the rest. Frankly the best parts of this book for me were her more down to earth accounts of her family life, her autobiography as it were, and finishing it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2018
I give five stars not because it's perfect, but because parts of it are. Parts of it are so insightful, poignant, and majestic that they merit five stars for the whole book. Those parts are so frequent and powerful that they merit persevering through the sections that are a bit tedious, or nebulous.
Perhaps I'll put a list of my favorite essays here later. Perhaps I won't, so you can discover them for yourself.
Perhaps I'll put a list of my favorite essays here later. Perhaps I won't, so you can discover them for yourself.
August 29, 2017
Perseus in the Wind is a memoir more than anything else (my opinion). It provides insight into Stark's other writings, yes, and more so it's an interesting read by a trained observer. More history than travelogue and complete with anecdotes and analysis. Good stuff.
April 20, 2020
30% amazingly atmospheric and mesmerising prose. 70% ponderous, turgid and self-indulgent drivel.
It is a book of it’s era, and thankfully that era has passed. Rescued by the 30%, but ultimately disappointing.
It is a book of it’s era, and thankfully that era has passed. Rescued by the 30%, but ultimately disappointing.
July 5, 2024
My. Kind. Of. Book.
My. Kind. Of. Person.
This woman is extraordinary and I like to believe I’m stirring up her spirit while reading her words. Feels like time travel and this won’t be the last thing I read of hers. Stunning.
My. Kind. Of. Person.
This woman is extraordinary and I like to believe I’m stirring up her spirit while reading her words. Feels like time travel and this won’t be the last thing I read of hers. Stunning.
Want to read
April 23, 2013Freya Stark was mentioned in To War with Whitaker
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
January 3, 2025
As 2025 promises to find me travelling a significant amount of time, it made sense to start this year of travel with exposure to a well-established travel writer, and as I’d yet to have read anything by Freya Stark, her subtle examination of themes discovered along the winding roads of her life seemed a propitious starting point. Indeed, things began captivatingly well in the Foreword, as, through her explanation for the title of this work, Perseus in the Wind, she captured a powerful personal memory of a Persian summer, during which she witnessed the constellation Perseus dancing in the wind, and the subsequent comfort she experienced. In the Foreword’s final line, Stark expresses this inimitable beauty of connection to the reader, who, invited into her reflections from our ‘separate darkness,’ remain part of ‘a fellowship that looks to the same stars.’ A more inclusive invitation I could not have desired; indeed, I was immediately hooked.
While common to the well-versed travel writer, the topics examined throughout the text are anything but moribund: how does happiness manifest, beauty enchant, acceptance of death empower courageousness, the indispensability of memory encourage contentment, and the mutability of circumstance give way to adaptability? Through blithely rich descriptions of her experiences and reflections, each short essay remains replete with wisdom, Stark’s relevance as a traveller of abundance amply painted across each golden page. There’s much to learn here, including several quotable quotes:
“…an absolute condition of all successful living, whether for an individual or a nation, is the acceptance of death.”
“The true giver gathers beauty and sheds it, knowing that it is but a part of what he and all men receive all the time.”
“…and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.”
“On the whole, age comes most gently to those who have some doorway into an abstract world, art, or philosophy, or learning regions where the years are scarcely noticed and young and old can meet in a pale truthful light.”
5 stars. Exactly the kind of primer toward wisdom that I need for this year of roaming, I found myself inspired to read more of her work, and immediately checked out her earlier published work, The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in The Hadhramaut. I have a feeling I have much to learn from Freya Stark. Having already deeply enjoyed this pearl of her mid-life recollections, I look very forward to what other titbits of wisdom might be gained from her other works.
While common to the well-versed travel writer, the topics examined throughout the text are anything but moribund: how does happiness manifest, beauty enchant, acceptance of death empower courageousness, the indispensability of memory encourage contentment, and the mutability of circumstance give way to adaptability? Through blithely rich descriptions of her experiences and reflections, each short essay remains replete with wisdom, Stark’s relevance as a traveller of abundance amply painted across each golden page. There’s much to learn here, including several quotable quotes:
“…an absolute condition of all successful living, whether for an individual or a nation, is the acceptance of death.”
“The true giver gathers beauty and sheds it, knowing that it is but a part of what he and all men receive all the time.”
“…and the art of learning fundamental common values is perhaps the greatest gain of travel to those who wish to live at ease among their fellows.”
“On the whole, age comes most gently to those who have some doorway into an abstract world, art, or philosophy, or learning regions where the years are scarcely noticed and young and old can meet in a pale truthful light.”
5 stars. Exactly the kind of primer toward wisdom that I need for this year of roaming, I found myself inspired to read more of her work, and immediately checked out her earlier published work, The Southern Gates of Arabia: A Journey in The Hadhramaut. I have a feeling I have much to learn from Freya Stark. Having already deeply enjoyed this pearl of her mid-life recollections, I look very forward to what other titbits of wisdom might be gained from her other works.
December 31, 2021
This book is different from all the other travelogues by Freya Stark, in that it is a collection of essays of her thoughts on twenty different topics. I prefer reading her travelogues, and the snippets of her experiences in each essay were nice to read. However, a bulk of each essay is her reflections on those topics. Her remarks on the war and what she found in her Italian villa after the war were interesting insights from her.
February 27, 2024
Interesting observations. But I was put off by two things. I don't like reading books that have chapters preceded by a lot of quotes. Especially when they are written in different languages. The second thing was its contents in some parts.
August 21, 2020
Touted as one of her most intimate works it is just a collection of musings broken up into chapters. I am a big fan of her adventures but not this book.
September 27, 2022
I like the author’s insights and stories from her travels. It was to me, however, a little too impressionistic.
January 1, 2024
Written in 1947-48. War and adventures in the near-East are over and Ms Stark is in her mid-fifties and taking stock of those things she’s discovered are important to a life, her own or any other.
These are twenty short essays—six or eight pages each—wrapped in a slim volume, treating themes of the kind you’ll expect if you’ve been that age. Writing on happiness, beauty, death, love or sorrow she’s as readable and quotable as ever in a prose of time and place that’s often sublime.
The book was written on coming back to Asolo after the war, the small town in the Veneto where she was a girl, and where in two magnificent pages that begin the essay on Travel she relates the passing of the seasons there. It might be my favorite.
But then this is Good Reads, so the verdict should probably go to Words. This essay introduces with another magical page on the cycle of the silk harvest in Asolo, then becomes her take on language and the dangers of misuse. What could be more currant?
And the lady was of course, among other things, a classical and modern languages whizz. The essay concludes: "To cherish words is, it seems to me, the only safety".
Find a copy and you might just end up agreeing with her.
These are twenty short essays—six or eight pages each—wrapped in a slim volume, treating themes of the kind you’ll expect if you’ve been that age. Writing on happiness, beauty, death, love or sorrow she’s as readable and quotable as ever in a prose of time and place that’s often sublime.
The book was written on coming back to Asolo after the war, the small town in the Veneto where she was a girl, and where in two magnificent pages that begin the essay on Travel she relates the passing of the seasons there. It might be my favorite.
But then this is Good Reads, so the verdict should probably go to Words. This essay introduces with another magical page on the cycle of the silk harvest in Asolo, then becomes her take on language and the dangers of misuse. What could be more currant?
And the lady was of course, among other things, a classical and modern languages whizz. The essay concludes: "To cherish words is, it seems to me, the only safety".
Find a copy and you might just end up agreeing with her.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews