Robert Byron

Treasures and Men

Phoenix: The Station: Athos

Robert Byron believed that the summit of ancient Greek civilization was not to be found in 5th century B.C.E. Athens, but in post-classical Byzantium, also called Constantinople by the Romans. Byzantine civilization was truly glorious, as we see by looking through Byron's fresh eyes. Byron was a brilliant writer and dashing figure whose life was cut short in WWII. The introduction is by Richard Luckett, Byron's biographer.

An Historical Perspective, C.E. 330-1453

The Byzantine Achievement

Europa w zwierciadle

"The Station" by Robert Byron. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The Station

New annotated edition

New Delhi

First published in 1931, Robert Byron’s Essay on India evaluates the state of colonial rule in India and analyses the contemporary problems facing the country. Based upon Byron’s travelling experiences within India in 1929 as a correspondent for the Daily Express, the work explores political factors more fully than in Byron's earlier writings, evaluating the successes and failures of British colonialism in the region.

An Essay on India (Routledge Revivals)

Southern California is many things to many people. A continuous influx of new people, new ideas, new interests, and different life styles creates a mind-boggling diversity. This story covers the life of an individual who is part of that diverse mosaic - an East Coast transplant who comes to Southern California by way of the US Marine Corps and San Diego. This book is a chronology of indelible memories that begin with family life in the depression thirties and the early-on impact of Catholicism from elementary school to mid-college. It provides a unique insider’s view of life in a near monastic setting when the author, at age 15, commits himself to a religious order. Leaving the order in mid-college, he joins another highly disciplined organization – the United States Marine Corps where, as both an enlisted man and officer, he sheds the earlier mold of the religious life. After military service, years of mainstream jobs follow including city halls, county government, and aerospace - all blended with a heavy dose of politics and teaching. His engagement with entrepreneurial undertakings follows with responses to critical needs such as jobs for displaced aerospace engineers when space programs are cutback, creation of a charter school to meet the need for better public schools, and his expansion of academic programs to engage older Americans in mentally stimulating and life enhancing learning experiences. All these experiences are couched within the context of events that highlighted each decade. This multifaceted career takes its toll on a marriage of thirty years whose continuity has been sustained in large measure through a family- shared hobby of dancing. But even dancing can’t hold together the strains put on a marriage by a roller coaster life of continuous change. Divorce and the premature death of 3 of 4 children mar a life absorbed with programs designed to benefit the community. Despite these losses, the author continues to lead, teach, and dance. This book reflects so many facets of southland life that many readers, especially long time residents of Southern California, will identify with one or more aspects – the military, former aerospace workers, city workers, teachers, and the retirement community. It provides a unique overview of Southern California’s dance scene especially in the Los Angeles-Orange County-San Bernardino/Riverside, and San Diego areas. Dancing has long been central to the author’s family - ballroom, country, folk, and swing. The hobby continues to fuel the author’s energy and pleasure. To those in or about to enter the expanding ranks of America’s seniors, the author sets an example of an age-impervious effort to enhance a community’s learning resources. His current efforts involve formation of a senior think tank whose analyses of current events will be shared with schools and the community.

The Dancing Man

"The Road to Oxiana" by Robert Byron. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

The Road to Oxiana

David Talbot Rice

First published in 1930, this book deals with Byzantine art, not as an isolated province, but as one intimately connected with the subsequent history of European painting. After a summary of the whole question in its relation to modern art, the second chapter opens with a novel analysis of the iconoclast controversy, and shows how it was only by this movement that Hellenistic naturalism was finally vanquished and the seed of interpretational art planted in Europe in its stead. The third chapter reveals how this seed was nourished by the Constantinopolitan Renascence, and how that event, combined with the increasing humanisation of religious emotion, culminated, not only in Duccio and Giotto, but in the equally important work of their contemporaries at Mistra and Mount Athos. A detailed account of these works is given and in the last part of the book, the mystery of El Greco is finally resolved. The book is based, not only on extensive research but on personal observation of nearly all the works mentioned, in Constantinople, Greece, Crete, Italy, and Spain. It is an important and exciting addition to the history of European Art and establishes, scientifically, theories which only existed in conjecture before its publication. The book includes 94 black and white plates.

A History of Colour, Form and Iconography

The Birth of Western Painting (Routledge Revivals)

A travel writing classic ready to be rediscovered, Europe in the Looking Glass describes, with a mixture of laugh-out-loud humour and perceptive commentary on art and architecture, how three rich young Englishmen cross pre-World-War-Two Europe in an old car. Best known as the author of The Road to Oxiana, published in 1937, Robert Byron developed his considerable writing skills on a travel book which has not been in print since 1926. Europe in the Looking Glass describes a journey Byron made with three friends, driving across Europe between two world wars, and mixes political and historical analysis with architectural insights, classical scholarship and the day-to-day adventures of three young and not very experienced travelers. For fans of Robert Byron’s work this will be a discovery; for others it will be an introduction. Turning a corner we suddenly found ourselves sliding down a precipice, tilted so far forward that it was necessary to hold ourselves back with our hands pressed against the dashboard, as half a dozen Apennine valleys beckoned invitingly below… Here [St Peter’s] Popes with black faces and golden crowns are wallowing twice life-size in the titanic folds of marble tablecloths, their ormolu fringes festooning upon the arms of graceful skeletons to disclose some Alice-in-Wonderland door or the grim hinges of some sepulchral grill…

Europe in the Looking-Glass

Originally published: London: G. Routledge & Sons, 1926. With a new foreword.

Europe in the Looking Glass

A group of "enlightened" people gather in a small mid-western town to discuss the coming cataclysm: the capsizing of the earth and the end of life on earth as we presently know it, including specific instructions and training in survival tactics for such a dire event for those that do survive, and suggestions of how life might continue on the "new" earth.

The Enlightened

Dreamtime

Apsley Cherry-Garrard

To mark the publication of Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books. THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD INTRODUCED BY SARA WHEELER A gripping account of an expedition gone disastrously wrong. One of the youngest members of Captain Scott's team, Apsley Cherry-Garrard was later part of the rescue party that found the frozen bodies of Scott and the three men who had accompanied him on the final push to the Pole. A masterpiece of travel writing, this is the most celebrated and compelling of all the books on Antarctic exploration. THE ROAD TO OXIANA In 1933, the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana - part of the border between what is now Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. This is the captivating, quirky record of his adventures and a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travellers.

Stop What You’re Doing and Read...On a Journey: The Worst Journey in the World & The Road to Oxiana

Over the course of several months during 1931 and 1932, Robert Byron journeyed to three countries teetering on the brink of change. In Russia, which was stricken by famine, Lenin had just died, Stalin’s dictatorship was in its infancy and the Great Terror had yet to begin. Having taken the first commercial flight to India, which took an astounding seven days, Byron was thrown into the tumultuous last years of the British Raj. Gandhi was imprisoned, while rioting and clashes between Hindus and Muslims had become commonplace. Finally Byron entered Tibet, the forbidden country. Exploring “The Land of Snows”, he saw Tibet as it was when the then Dalai Lama was still ensconced in the Potala Palace, twenty years before China’s invasion. First Russia, Then Tibet is an invaluable first-hand account of transformative moments in periods of change and upheaval.-Print ed. Richly illustrated throughout.

Robert Byron

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