cover image Hellas: Portrait of Greece

Hellas: Portrait of Greece

Nicholas Gage. Villard Books, $17.95 (247pp) ISBN 978-0-394-55694-9

In this revised edition of his 1971 Portrait of Greece, Gage, author of Eleni, offers a combination capsule history and travel guide to Athens and to such areas as his own native mountain village Lia. Illuminating essays embrace aspects of the landscape, culture, religion and mythology of his homeland. Gage shows us a land dominated by the sea and built to human proportions, its people who have survived invasion and absorbed most of its conquerors, Greek cooking that has altered little since the age of Pericles, and a populace that makes a celebration out of every meal. His paean is an excellent complement to standard guidebooks. Illustrations not seen by PW. (January)