GLIMPSES OF EOTHEN
Constantinople. By George Young. (Methuen. 12s. 6d.)
Beyond the Bosphorus cannot be recommended either to the serious student or to those who read for amusement. Much of it is from guide books and manuals ; of the rest, some of it is incorrect, as, for example, on page 37 where the author states that late in 1920 Eski-Shehir was attempted by the Greeks before they were beaten in the first battle of In Eunu and thrown back upon Broussa. In point of fact the Creeks made their first assault on Eski-Shehir on March 23rd, 1921. They captured the town on July 11th. The battle of In Eunu was fought some 200 miles to the east and the Greeks held Eski-Shehir until September, 1922, when they retired on Smyrna. The style is heavy and laboured : the contents are neither instructive nor amusing.
Mr. Ferriman's East and West of Hellespont is a book of far different calibre. It should be classed as belles-lettres. Out of a real knowledge obtained by years of experience, and out of a life of travel and adventure, the author has made a collection of fragments dealing with Smyrna, with Tarsus, Konia and the towns of Southern Anatolia, with Syria and Palestine ; and, across the Balkans, with Albania and Ochrida Lake behind Monastir. They are written with great charm of style, showing the author to be a scholar, a man of letters and an antiquarian and they are spiced with quaint information and touches of old-world learning which cannot fail to hold the reader. It should be read at leisure moments for the pleasure of reading, for the melody of words, and for the vivid pen-pictures it contains—a book to be enjoyed as one enjoys good wine.
Mr. Young's Constantinople is frankly a manual, but written on an original plan. He chooses the monuments and places of note in Constantinople, and round these he groups a wealth of picturesque history and legend until even the least imaginative reader cannot fail to see the past live again before his eyes. To anyone visiting Constantinople, or desiring to know its long history, from the Roman Empire to the Angora Republic, no better book could be recommended. It is easily and dramatically written. It is also full of a rich humour which relieves any dreariness from the multitude of facts. The illustrations are excellent, but there is need of a map of modern Constantinople.
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