Traveler, Scholar, Political Adventurer

by Robert Elsie, Robert Elsie (Editor)

The Austro-Hungarian aristocrat of Transylvanian origin, Baron Franz Nopcsa (1877-1933), was one of the most adventuresome travelers and scholars of Southeast Europe in the early decades of the twentieth century. He was also a paleontologist of renown and a noted geologist of the Balkan Peninsula : many of his assumptions have been confirmed by science. The Memoirs of this fascinating figure deal mainly with his travels in the Balkans, and specifically in the remote and wild mountains of northern Albania, in the years from 1903 to 1914. They thus cover the period of Ottoman Rule, the Balkan Wars and the outbreak of the First World War. Nopcsa was a keen adventurer who hiked through regions of northern Albania. With time, he became a leading expert in Albanian studies. He was also deeply involved in the politics of the period. In 1913, Nopcsa even offered himself as a candidate for the vacant Albanian throne. The Introduction also tells of Nopcsa's tragic he shot his Albanian secretary and partner before killing himself. The memoirs themselves reveal some references to his homosexuality for those who can read between the lines.

Genres: Nonfiction

250 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter and specialist in Albanian studies. He studied at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1972 with a diploma in Classical Studies and Linguistics. In the following years, he continued his post-graduate studies at the Free University of Berlin, at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and at the University of Paris IV: Paris-Sorbonne, at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in Ireland, and at the University of Bonn, where he finished his doctorate on Linguistics and Celtic Studies in 1978 at the Linguistics Institute.

From 1978 on, Elsie visited Albania several times with a group of students and professors from the University of Bonn. For several years, he also attended the International Seminar on Albanian Language, Literature and Culture, held in Prishtina, Kosovo. From 1982 to 1987, he worked for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bonn, and from 2002 to 2013 for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, in particular as an interpreter for several noted cases including the trial of Slobodan Milošević.

As a translator Robert Elsie offers the reader “a selection of songs from the best known cycle of Albanian epic verse”.

Reviews

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, this isn’t your usual memoir. It’s largely a political history of Albania through the research trips and personal thoughts of Nopsca. There is very little of the info I would have liked—his relationship with Bajazid, the paleontological side of his research, etc. Really interesting, but my queer paleontologist remains mostly a mystery still.

[L-ssar · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro se hace arduo porque detalla demasiado los asuntos políticos de principios del s XX en Albania, sin embargo conocer la faceta de Nopcsa como espía/"cónsul" es fascinante. Y que con toda esa labor además tuviese tiempo para detallar la geología y la paleontología adelantándose a su tiempo...

[GazMeti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se bashku me E. Durham eshte autori me i besueshem i periudhes me te rendesisheme te shtetformimit dhe ceshtjes shqiptare te fillim shekullit XX.