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Cette réalité que j'ai pourchassée
Les lettres qu'Ella Maillart a échangées avec ses parents déroulent le récit de ses années de grands voyages, de 1925 à 1941. Écrites sur le vif, elles saisissent ses humeurs du moment, annoncent les projets d'itinéraires, esquissent des réflexions sur l'Orient et l'Europe. Elles sont ici accompagnées de photographies et complétées par des reportages écrits pour divers journaux et magazines. Voile sur le Léman, fouilles en Crète, entraînement sportif et pérégrinations dans les montagnes d'URSS, sans oublier le récit classé « confidentiel » d'une visite à Winston Churchill en 1936 : une plongée dans la trépidante existence de la voyageuse.
Célèbre pour ses multiples exploits sportifs, ses voyages et ses livres, la grande exploratrice Ella Maillart (1903-1997) a parcouru les régions les plus reculées de la planète.
« Hier soir pendant que je dormais à moitié sur mon étage supérieur, les autres chantaient en chœur, au-dessus de moi, tandis que les grands champs glissaient dehors comme des vagues. – La sirène de la locomotive est comme celle d'un paquebot. »
Avant-propos d'Olivier Bauer
Célèbre pour ses multiples exploits sportifs, ses voyages et ses livres, la grande exploratrice Ella Maillart (1903-1997) a parcouru les régions les plus reculées de la planète.
« Hier soir pendant que je dormais à moitié sur mon étage supérieur, les autres chantaient en chœur, au-dessus de moi, tandis que les grands champs glissaient dehors comme des vagues. – La sirène de la locomotive est comme celle d'un paquebot. »
Avant-propos d'Olivier Bauer
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About the author
Ella Maillart
25 books43 followersElla 'Kini' Maillart (February 20, 1903 – March 27, 1997) was a French-speaking Swiss adventurer and travel writer, as well as a sportswoman. She had been captain of the Swiss Women's ice hockey team and was an international skier. She also competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics as sailor in the Olympic monotype competition.
From the 1930s onward she spent years exploring oriental republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in French but later she began to write in English. Turkestan Solo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan. In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation. It was there that she met Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang (then also known as Chinese Turkestan) where a civil war had been going on. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his News from Tartary. In 1937 Ella Maillart returned to Asia for Le Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The Cruel Way is the title of Ella Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the second World War.
She spent the war years in the South of India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.
Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of La Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland.
From the 1930s onward she spent years exploring oriental republics of the USSR, as well as other parts of Asia, and published a rich series of books which, just as her photographs, are today considered valuable historical testimonies. Her early books were written in French but later she began to write in English. Turkestan Solo describes a journey in 1932 in Soviet Turkestan. In 1934, the French daily Le Petit Parisien sent her to Manchuria to report on the situation under the Japanese occupation. It was there that she met Peter Fleming, a well-known writer and correspondent of The Times, with whom she would team up to cross China from Peking to Srinagar (3,500 miles), much of the route being through hostile desert regions and steep Himalayan passes. The journey started in February 1935 and took seven months to complete, involving travel by train, on lorries, on foot, horse and camelback. Their objective was to ascertain what was happening in Sinkiang (then also known as Chinese Turkestan) where a civil war had been going on. Ella Maillart later recorded this trek in her book Forbidden Journey, while Peter Fleming's parallel account is found in his News from Tartary. In 1937 Ella Maillart returned to Asia for Le Petit Parisien to report on Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey, while in 1939 she undertook a trip from Geneva to Kabul by car, in the company of the Swiss writer, Annemarie Schwarzenbach. The Cruel Way is the title of Ella Maillart's book about this experience, cut short by the outbreak of the second World War.
She spent the war years in the South of India, learning from different teachers about Advaita Vedanta, one of the schools of Hindu philosophy. On her return to Switzerland in 1945, she lived in Geneva and at Chandolin, a mountain village in the Swiss Alps. She continued to ski until late in life and last returned to Tibet in 1986.
Ella Maillart's manuscripts and documents are kept at the Bibliothèque de Genève (Library of the City of Geneva), her photographic work is deposited at the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, and her documentary films (on Afghanistan, Nepal and South India) are part of the collection of La Cinémathèque suisse in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 13, 2025
Incroyable ! Ce livre permet de rentrer un peu dans l'intimité d'Ella Maillart. En effet, il donne accès à des textes peu connus comme certains reportages et même à un inédit. De plus, c’est intéressant d’avoir arboré ces lettres par plusieurs photos de ces voyages.
February 6, 2025
Intéressant ! Il faudrait lire ses récits d'aventures avant ses correspondances
October 1, 2025
Pour les fans d'Ella Maillart (dont je suis). A lire absolument après avoir lu ses récits et très éclairant dans ce cas. Je ne pense pas que ce livre présente un réel intérêt autrement.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews