The Valleys of the Assassins and Other Persian Travels (Modern Library) (Modern Library (Paperback)) Paperback – 23 Aug. 2001

A fascinating read about northern Iran, it's more about the landscape and it's people than an historical account of Hassan-i Sabbah's Assassins, so don't buy it if that is what you think this is. Stark's prose flows elegantly and beautifully. and make for a very good read. Her travels were extraordinary.

Freya Stark travelled with an eye for detail and an empathy for the people of the countries in which she travelled. Her prose is poetic and flowing and immerses you into the world she is visiting. Highly recommended.

it could do with modern maps to help guide you as to exactly where she was

A very enjoyable read once you get used to the prose. Freya was quite a character!

Excellent. I write as someone who knows that part of the world.

I bought this book attracted by its fame 70 years after it was first published, and by the topic itself. It was a let down: the book is boring. Even if it includes a bit of tension in the shape of a treasure or lost city quest, it is bogged down by the accumulation of descriptions of monotonous landscapes and general lack of rhythm. It's interesting as a glimpse into the life of long-forgotten tribes, but, all in all, books like  The Marsh Arabs (Penguin Classics) , which are roughly from the same area and time, offer a much more engaging read than this one.

Have just started reading this book and the pages are already falling out, but ordered it awhile ago and can’t return it. Very bad conduit a brand new book

As expected!

Materialized the places and the people, even for today’s reader. That mysterious land must have so much more to say to the outsiders ever since the origin of the civilization.

An adorable book

Ms. Stark is possibly the greatest traveler of the 20th century, and her books have been some of the greatest pleasures of my reading life. I don't know that I could choose a favorite from among them, but this one certainly ranks with the others as superior - exciting, informative, and very well written, by a courageous woman whose brilliance is equaled by her profound empathy.

I agree with much of what is said in the reviews below: Stark's travelogues aren't to be read in bed if you have any intention of keeping your eyes open for more than a dozen pages or so. Her writing is clear and concise, but not scintillating by any means. What's of interest in this book is less the style of writing and more the travels themselves. Here was a single woman in the 1930s traveling in an area of the world virtually unknown to Westerners, making the radical choices, for instance, to study the Koran and live with the locals. She was a true radical of her own time who dared to tread places that Marco Polo didn't even approach, despite his (in)famous claims to the contrary.As for the criticism of the lack of maps in the book that some of the reviewers here have brought up -- well, that may be a criticism directed at the publisher, but it shouldn't be aimed at Stark. The maps that are in the book are the ones that Stark made herself during her travels and handed over to the Royal Geographic Society, and are considered the first Western maps of the area. In my own research, I was in contact with the Society repeatedly, trying to procure additional maps of the Elburz Mountain region for background information on Vladimir Bartol's ALAMUT, an historical novel based on the most famous Valley of the Assassin resident, Hasan ibn Sabbah. Frankly, Stark's maps are some of the few that actually exist, even to this day. The area of her travels -- perhaps aside from CIA maps that we mere mortals are not privy to -- has not been mapped very well. Spend a few hours scouring antiquarian map collectors and see what you come up with. True, it would have been helpful for the publisher to add some basic "Rand McNally" type overviews of her route, but a criticism of Stark on this point is completely beside the point and neglects to recognize her true contribution to the literature.

The book was in good condition.