Jan Morris

«En Venecia, el pasado y el presente se entretejen de forma curiosa, los venecianos no se han recuperado del todo de la pérdida de la gloria, quizá no la hayan aceptado siquiera, de modo que en el f

«A veces, no obstante, gracias a algún guiño del clima, a una asociación de ideas o a cierta alquimia del escenario, percibo en el aire del Estambul actual una traza de Venecia. Sobre todo de buena m

Edición en castellano.

A New York Review Books Original Hav is like no place on earth. Rumored to be the site of Troy, captured during the crusades and recaptured by Saladin, visited by Tolstoy, Hitler, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana, this Mediterranean city-state is home to several architectural marvels and an annual rooftop race that is a feat of athleticism and insanity. As Jan Morris guides us through the corridors and quarters of Hav, we hear the mingling of Italian, Russian, and Arabic in its markets, delight in its famous snow raspberries, and meet the denizens of its casinos and cafés. When Morris published Last Letters from Hav in 1985, it was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Here it is joined by Hav of the Myrmidons, a sequel that brings the story up-to-date. Twenty-first-century Hav is nearly unrecognizable. Sanitized and monetized, it is ruled by a group of fanatics who have rewritten its history to reflect their own blinkered view of the past. Morris's only novel is dazzlingly sui-generis, part erudite travel memoir, part speculative fiction, part cautionary political tale. It transports the reader to an extraordinary place that never was, but could well be. Show more Show less

The great travel writer Jan Morris was born James Morris. James Morris distinguished himself in the British military, became a successful and physically daring reporter, climbed mountains, crossed deserts, and established a reputation as a historian of the British empire. He was happily married, with several children. To all appearances, he was not only a man, but a man's man. Except that appearances, as James Morris had known from early childhood, can be deeply misleading. James Morris had known all his conscious life that at heart he was a woman. Conundrum, one of the earliest books to discuss transsexuality with honesty and without prurience, tells the story of James Morris's hidden life and how he decided to bring it into the open, as he resolved first on a hormone treatment and, second, on risky experimental surgery that would turn him into the woman that he truly was.

The World is a magnum opus by the finest travel writer in the world. Ranging from Manhattan to Venice, Oxford to the Middle East, and Paris to South Africa, the book provides Jan Morris's eyewitness accounts of such seminal moments as the first successful ascent of Everest, the historic Eichmann trial, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the handover of Hong Kong. Dividing the volume into five decades, Morris presents history with an unparalleled dramatic flair, creating a riveting portrait of the twentieth century, from the political idealism of the postwar years to its more recent tensions and excesses. As much a celebratory book as a swan song that puts Morris's extraordinary career in a unique historical perspective, The World promises to create an entirely new generation of Jan Morris readers.

The first book to distill Jan Morris's entire body of work into one volume, The World is a magnum opus by the most-celebrated travel writer in the world. To read it is to take an epic armchair journey through the last half of twentieth-century history. A breathtakingly vivid guide to our greatest cosmopolitan cities and cultures from Manhattan to Venice and from Baghdad to Barbados, this book assembles fifty years of Morris's finest travel writing. With eyewitness accounts of such seminal moments as the first successful ascent of Everest, the Eichmann trial, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the handover of Hong Kong, The World promises to create an entirely new generation of Jan Morris readers. A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2003.

A traves de la historia de su casa en Gales, Jan Morris descubre el corazón de ese fascinante país e indaga que supone ser gales. Trefan Morys, la casa de Jan Morris enclavada en un remoto rincón del noroeste de Gales situado entre el mar y la montaña es, en realidad, el establo de la casa donde vivieron sus antepasados. Morris ve ese modesto edificio no solo como un reflejo de si misma y de su propia vida, sino tambien como un epitome del complejo pais de Gales, que ha sabido desafiar al mundo durante siglos para conservar su identidad.

En 1953, todo el mundo estaba a la espera de oír si la expedición de sir John Hunt triunfaría en su intento de ser la primera en llegar a la cima del monteEverest, a ocho mil ochocientos metros sobre

No empire in history built so variously as the British empire in India. The buildings there attest to the richness of an imperial presence that lasted--from the first trading settlement to the end of the Raj--some three hundred years. The attitude of the British to India was compounded partly of arrogance, but partly also of homesickness, and it shows in their constructions. Georgian terraces were adapted to tropical conditions, Victorian railway stations were elaborately orientalized, seaside villas were adjusted to suit Himalayan conditions, and everywhere the fundamental ambivalence of the British empire, a baffling mixture of good and evil, was mirrored in the imperial architecture. This book, now reissued with an introduction by Simon Winchester, was the first to describe the whole range of British constructions in India. The text and photographs illustrate these buildings not simply as physical objects, but as reflections of an empire's mingled emotions. Stones of Empire charts an enterprise in architecture, engineering, and social adaptation unique in human history. `Review from previous edition '...magical prose and marvellous photographs'' Sunday Times

En las últimas cinco décadas, Jan Morris, incansable viajera, ha recorrido el mundo entero, desde Sudáfrica a Hong Kong, pasando por Venecia, Londres, París, Berlín o Toronto, entre muchísimos otros destinos. En Un mundo escrito, Jan Morris ofrece una antología aguda y brillante, entre la literatura y el reportaje, de sus mejores escritos. Morris, considerada como una de las escritoras sobre viajes más cualificadas del mundo, retrata de un modo muy personal lugares y personas de todas las latitudes, y aborda con absoluto conocimiento de causa sucesos ocurridos a lo largo del siglo pasado tan determinantes como la guerra fría, el declive del comunismo o la llegada de la globalización.

«Equiparo el enigma a la idea de alma, de ser, y no lo concibo como un mero enigma sexual, sino como una búsqueda de unidad.»La gran escritora de viajes Jan Morris nació como James Morris. Con ese no

«En Venecia, el pasado y el presente se entretejen de forma curiosa, los venecianos no se han recuperado del todo de la pérdida de la gloria, quizá no la hayan aceptado siquiera, de modo que en el fo

He aquí la evocación más aclamada de Venecia que se haya escrito jamás, perfecto compañero de viaje para quien desee visitar la ciudad y para quien sencillamente ame la buena literatura, repleto de curiosas anécdotas entrelazadas con datos históricos de impoluta precisión. He aquí un libro único, como su autora, y es que «junto a su enorme agudeza, sensibilidad y cultura, Jan Morris posee un rasgo que la hace única para escribir de viajes: ha estado en muchos sitios como mujer y como hombre (se hizo una operación de cambio de sexo). Venecia es uno de sus lugares favoritos y su personalidad se entrelaza con la de la Serenísima, "la leona solitaria, dorada con ojos de ágata", de una manera muy particular. El libro que le dedicó a la metrópolis anfibia, lo escribió cuando era un hombre, introduciendo cambios sustanciales luego» (Jacinto Antón, El País).

Peerless.' Daily Telegraph 'Sprinkled with magic.' Observer 'Full of mischief, romance, fun and kindness.' The Times Soldier, journalist, historian, author of forty books, Jan Morris led an extraordinary life, witnessing such seminal moments as the first ascent of Everest, the Suez Canal Crisis, the Eichmann Trial, the Cuban Revolution and so much more. From reflections on identity and nations to the importance of good marmalade, Allegorizings is the final despatch from one of the greatest chroniclers of the twentieth century. 'A precious few [writers] report with wisdom, kindness and intelligence from the end to which we shall all come - travel of a different kind. This is such a book.' Sarah Moss, New York Times 'She was one of the most extraordinary people I ever had the luc