Canongate Classics: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

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Part travelogue, part history, part love letter, Rebecca West's masterwork is a genre-bending exploration written in elegant prose. Its uniqueness lies in its profound emotional depth, reminiscent of both *The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire* and *Let Us Now Praise Famous Men*. West's first visit to Yugoslavia in 1936 profoundly impacted her, compelling her to return, as she felt it resembled "the country I have always seen between sleeping and waking." This work chronicles her travels while she follows a metaphorical strand of wool through historical digressions, narratives of battles, slavery, and assassinations, as well as references to Shakespeare and Augustine, delving into human frailty. Written on the brink of World War II, the book reflects West's belief in the inevitability of conflict, as she searches for universals within the complexities of Balkan history. She perceives the region's doom—and humanity's—through a shared obsession with sacrifice, symbolized by the "black lamb and grey falcon." This narrative echoes the story of Abraham and Isaac, highlighting the tragic readiness of both the hateful and the innocent to embrace martyrdom for personal gain. In 1941, West saw the world as a vast Kossovo, a blood-soaked plain, a sentiment that remains disturbingly relevant today.