TRAVEL IN RUMANIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

TRAVEL IN RUMANIA

ROYAL RECOMMENDATION By M.F.G. IX a conversation with Bruce Lockhart, King Carol of Romania or.ee remarked that the best book over written about his country was the work of an Englishman. The book is D. J. Hall's "Romanian Furrow" (he prefers this spelling) and the present edition, reprinted after six years, is well justified both by the excellence of the book itself and by the fact that Rumania has become a focal point of interest in European affairs. Tn two ways, "Romanian Furrow" is a model'for travel-writers to follow. Ono is the writer's own distinctive style, graphic, full of poetic vitality. The other is his method of collecting material, not ais a foreigner or a visitor .in a strange land, but by living the life of the peasants themBelve3*. Mr. Hall spent fomr months in tho Rumanian countryside, staying long enough in several different villages to become a part of the daily round in those.- places, working in the fields with them; sharing a peasant's supper, going to their weddings and funerals not as a spectator but as a guest, learning the language and making friends who later were loth to part with him. The theme and moral of this appealing and enjoyable book might be summed up in a saying which the author quotes as the title for one of his fine illustrations—"the earth satisfies, money desires." "Romanian Furrow." by D. J. Hall. iHarrap.)