Black lamb and grey falcon: a journey through Yugoslavia

1225 Pages·2007·61.455 MB·English

by  Hitchens, Christopher;West, Rebecca

REBECC \VE
Black Lamb
and
Grey Falcon
A JOURNEY THROUGH YUGOSLAVIA
Introduction by
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
PENGUIN BOOKS

@
PENGUIN CLASSICS
BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON
REBECCA WEST, novelist,biographer,journalist,andcritic,wasoneofthe
twentiethcentury's mostbrilliant andforceful writers. BornCicily Isabel
Fairfield on December 21, 1892, she was educated at George Watson's
LadiesCollege.SheadoptedthenomdeplumeRebeccaWestfromIbsen's
Rosmerholm, in whichsheonce appeared.Atanearly age shethrewher
self into the suffragette movement and in 191I joined the staff of the
Freewoman and in the following year became a political writer on the
socialist newspaper the Clarion. Her love affair with the novelist H.G.
Wellsbeganin 1913andlastedforten,notalwayshappy,years.Theirson,
AnthonyWest,heronlychild,wasbornin1914.AfterthebreakwithWells
shewenttoAmerica,whereshelecturedandformedwhatwastobealong
associationreviewingfortheNewYorkHerald-Tribune.In 1930shemar
riedHenryMaxwellAndrews,abanker,andtheylivedinBuckinghamshire
untilhisdeathin 1968,after whichRebeccaWestmovedtoLondon.
Her firstpublished book wasacritical study of Henry lames, her sec
ond a novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918), which was made into a
successful film.She published eight novels including The Judge (1922),
Harriet Hume (1929), and the largely autobiographical The Fountain
Overflows(1957).Herlastnovel,TheBirdsFallDown (1966),wasadapt
ed forBBC television in 1978.In the midthirties she made severaltrips
totheBalkansinorder togather materialforatravelbook. Butherinter
est in the subject deepened and she returned to the area many times to
collect more material. The result was her masterpiece, Black Lamb and
Grey Falcon, published in 1941 in two volumes. In her obituary, The
Times (London) remarked of this work that it "was immediately recog
nized as a magnum opus, as astonishing in itsrange, in the subtlety and
powerof itsjudgment, as it isbrilliant inexpression."As a result of the
book's publication, she was invited during the war to superintend the
BBC broadcasts to Yugoslavia. After the war she was present at the
Nuremberg Trials,andher accountof these andof other trials that arose
out of the relation of the individual to the state were published in two
books, TheMeaning ofTreason(1949) andA TrainofPowder (1955).
She was created a CBE in 1949 and advanced to a DBE (Dame
Commander,OrderoftheBritishEmpire)in 1959.In 1957shewasmade
aChevalieroftheLegionof Honour,in 1968aCompanion ofLiterature,
andin 1972anHonorary Member oftheAmericanAcademy ofArts and
Letters. Shedied on March 15, 1983,at the ageof ninety.In atributeto
her,EdwardCrankshawwrote,"RebeccaWestwassomuchapartofthis
century that nowthat she has gone it seems almost as though the centu
ry itself wereover."
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS isacolumnistfor VanityFair andabookcrit
ic for the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of studies of Thomas
Jefferson, George OrwelI,Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa, and has
published threevolumesofessays andcriticism.Heis aprofessor of lib
eral studies attheNew School inNewYork.
REBECC \VE
Black Lamb
and
Grey Falcon
A JOURNEY THROUGH YUGOSLAVIA
Introduction by
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
PublishedbythePenguinGroup
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FirstpublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaintwovolumesbytheVikingPress 1941
PublishedinonevolumebyTheVikingPress1943
PublishedinaVikingCompassedition1964
PublishedinPenguinBooks1982
ThiseditionwithanintroductionbyChristopherHitchenspublished2007
357910864
CopyrightRebeccaWest,1940,1941
CopyrightrenewedRebeccaWest,1968,1969
Introductioncopyright©ChristopherHitchens,2007
Allrightsreserved
PortionsofthisworkwerefirstpublishedinTheAtlanticMonthlyandHarper'sBazaar.
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGINGINPUBLICATIONDATA
West,Rebecca, 1892-1983.
BlacklambandgreyfalconIRebeccaWest;introductionbyChristopherHitchens.
p. cm.-(PenguinClassics)
Includesbibliographicalreferences andindex.
ISBN978-0-14-310490-2
I. Yugoslavia-i-Descriptionandtravel. 2. Yugoslavia-History. 1.Hitchens,Christopher.
II. Title.
DR1221.R43B55 2007
914.9704'21-dc22 2006050726
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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Yoursupportoftheauthor'srightsisappreciated.
TO MY FRIENDS IN YUGOSLAVIA,
WHO ARE NOW ALL DEAD OR ENSLAVED
Kat TlJ~ 'lro{h,viJ~ 'lrarpioa 'lrapaaxov aVTot~,
IJapaodaov 'lraA'~ 'lrO'W~ 'lroAira~ avrol;~.
Grant to them the Fatherland of their desire,
and make them againcitizens of Paradise.

Note on Pronunciation
The spelling ofYugoslavian names presents a serious problem.
The Serbo-Croat language is spoken in all parts ofYugoslavia
described in this book; but to write it the Serbs use the Cyrillic
alphabet (which is much the same as the Russian, but simpler)
and the Croats use the Latin alphabet. Most foreign writers on
Yugoslaviafollow the Croatian spelling, but this is not satisfacto
ry.The Cyrillic alphabet is designed to give a perfect phonetic
rendering of the Slav group oflanguages, and provides charac
ters for several consonants which other groups lack.The Latin
alphabetcan only representthese consonants byclappingaccents
on other consonants which bear some resemblance to them; and
the Croatianusage stillfurther confuses the English eye by using
"c" to represent not "s" and "k" but "ts," and "j" for "y." I have
found thatin practice the casual English reader is baffled by this
unfamiliar use of what looks familiar and is apt to pass over
names without grasping them clearly.I have therefore done my
best to transliterate allYugoslavian names into forms most likely
to convey the sound ofthem to English ears. Cetinje is written
here asTsetinye,jaiceasYaitse,Pec asPetch,SestinjeasShestinye.
KosovoIhavewrittenKossovo,thoughthe Serbo-Croatlanguage
uses no double consonants, because we take them as a sign that
the preceding vowel is short.
This is a rough and ready method, and at certain points it has
broken down. The Cyrillic alphabet provides special characters
for representing liquid consonants; the Latin alphabet can only
indicate these by adding "j" to the consonant, and this is ex
tremely confusing at the end of a word. In pronouncing "Senj"
the speakersays"Sen,"thenstarts to says a"y" sound, and stops
half-way. The English reader, seeing "Senj," pronounces it
"Senge" to rhyme with "Penge." But the spelling "Seny" makes
him pronounceitasadisyllable;andifthe suggestionofthe Royal
Geographical Society is adopted and the word is spelled "Sen'"
he isaptfor some strangereasonto interpretthis sign as a Scotch
V11
Vlll Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
"ch." I have therefore regarded the problem as insoluble, and
have left such words speltin the Croatianfashion, with the hope
thatreaders willtake the presence ofthe letter"j"aswarningthat
there are dark phonetic doings afoot. In "Bitolj," I may add, the
"I" has almost entirely disappeared, having only a short "y"
sound.
I have also given up any attempt to transliterate "Sarajevo" or
"Skoplje." For one thing "Sarajevo" is a tragically familiar form;
and for another, it is not a pure Slav word, and has the Turkish
word"sarac" afortress, embeddedin it,with aresulthardlyto be
conveyed by any but a most uncouth spelling. It is pronounced
something like"Sa-rai-ye-vo," with a faint accent on the second
syllable, and a short"e."As for "Skoplie,"the one way one must
notpronounce it isthe way the English readerwillcertainlypro
nounce itifitis spelt"Skoplye."The "0"is short, and allthe let
ters after it are combined into a single sound. I have committed
another irregularity by putting an "e" into the word "Tsrna," so
often found in place-names.This makes it easier for the English
reader to grasp that the vowel sound in the rolled "r" comes be
fore itandnotafter.
R.W