REBECC \VE Black Lamb and Grey Falcon A JOURNEY THROUGH YUGOSLAVIA Introduction by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS PENGUIN BOOKS @ PENGUIN CLASSICS BLACK LAMB AND GREY FALCON REBECCA WEST, novelist,biographer,journalist,andcritic,wasoneofthe twentiethcentury's mostbrilliant andforceful writers. BornCicily Isabel Fairfield on December 21, 1892, she was educated at George Watson's LadiesCollege.SheadoptedthenomdeplumeRebeccaWestfromIbsen's Rosmerholm, in whichsheonce appeared.Atanearly age shethrewher self into the suffragette movement and in 191I joined the staff of the Freewoman and in the following year became a political writer on the socialist newspaper the Clarion. Her love affair with the novelist H.G. Wellsbeganin 1913andlastedforten,notalwayshappy,years.Theirson, AnthonyWest,heronlychild,wasbornin1914.AfterthebreakwithWells shewenttoAmerica,whereshelecturedandformedwhatwastobealong associationreviewingfortheNewYorkHerald-Tribune.In 1930shemar riedHenryMaxwellAndrews,abanker,andtheylivedinBuckinghamshire untilhisdeathin 1968,after whichRebeccaWestmovedtoLondon. Her firstpublished book wasacritical study of Henry lames, her sec ond a novel, The Return of the Soldier (1918), which was made into a successful film.She published eight novels including The Judge (1922), Harriet Hume (1929), and the largely autobiographical The Fountain Overflows(1957).Herlastnovel,TheBirdsFallDown (1966),wasadapt ed forBBC television in 1978.In the midthirties she made severaltrips totheBalkansinorder togather materialforatravelbook. Butherinter est in the subject deepened and she returned to the area many times to collect more material. The result was her masterpiece, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, published in 1941 in two volumes. In her obituary, The Times (London) remarked of this work that it "was immediately recog nized as a magnum opus, as astonishing in itsrange, in the subtlety and powerof itsjudgment, as it isbrilliant inexpression."As a result of the book's publication, she was invited during the war to superintend the BBC broadcasts to Yugoslavia. After the war she was present at the Nuremberg Trials,andher accountof these andof other trials that arose out of the relation of the individual to the state were published in two books, TheMeaning ofTreason(1949) andA TrainofPowder (1955). She was created a CBE in 1949 and advanced to a DBE (Dame Commander,OrderoftheBritishEmpire)in 1959.In 1957shewasmade aChevalieroftheLegionof Honour,in 1968aCompanion ofLiterature, andin 1972anHonorary Member oftheAmericanAcademy ofArts and Letters. Shedied on March 15, 1983,at the ageof ninety.In atributeto her,EdwardCrankshawwrote,"RebeccaWestwassomuchapartofthis century that nowthat she has gone it seems almost as though the centu ry itself wereover." CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS isacolumnistfor VanityFair andabookcrit ic for the Atlantic Monthly. He is the author of studies of Thomas Jefferson, George OrwelI,Henry Kissinger, and Mother Teresa, and has published threevolumesofessays andcriticism.Heis aprofessor of lib eral studies attheNew School inNewYork. REBECC \VE Black Lamb and Grey Falcon A JOURNEY THROUGH YUGOSLAVIA Introduction by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS PENGUIN BOOKS PENGUIN BOOKS PublishedbythePenguinGroup PenguinGroup(USA)Inc.,375HudsonStreet,NewYork,NewYork10014,U.S.A. PenguinGroup(Canada),90EglintonAvenueEast,Suite700,Toronto,Ontario,CanadaM4P2Y3 (adivisionofPearsonPenguinCanadaInc.) PenguinBooksLtd,80Strand,LondonWC2RORL,England PenguinIreland,25StStephen'sGreen,Dublin2,Ireland (adivisionofPenguinBooksLtd) PenguinGroup(Australia),250CamberwellRoad,Camberwell,Victoria3124,Australia (adivisionofPearsonAustraliaGroupPtyLtd) PenguinBooksIndiaPvtLtd, 11CommunityCentre,PanchsheelPark,NewDelhi-I10017,India PenguinGroup(NZ),67ApolloDrive,MairangiBay,Auckland1311,NewZealand (adivisionofPearsonNewZealandLtd) PenguinBooks(SouthAfrica) (Pty)Ltd,24SrurdeeAvenue,Rosebank,Johannesburg2196, SouthAfrica PenguinBooksLtd,RegisteredOffices: 80Strand,LondonWC2RORL,England FirstpublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaintwovolumesbytheVikingPress 1941 PublishedinonevolumebyTheVikingPress1943 PublishedinaVikingCompassedition1964 PublishedinPenguinBooks1982 ThiseditionwithanintroductionbyChristopherHitchenspublished2007 357910864 CopyrightRebeccaWest,1940,1941 CopyrightrenewedRebeccaWest,1968,1969 Introductioncopyright©ChristopherHitchens,2007 Allrightsreserved PortionsofthisworkwerefirstpublishedinTheAtlanticMonthlyandHarper'sBazaar. LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGINGINPUBLICATIONDATA West,Rebecca, 1892-1983. BlacklambandgreyfalconIRebeccaWest;introductionbyChristopherHitchens. p. cm.-(PenguinClassics) Includesbibliographicalreferences andindex. ISBN978-0-14-310490-2 I. Yugoslavia-i-Descriptionandtravel. 2. Yugoslavia-History. 1.Hitchens,Christopher. II. Title. DR1221.R43B55 2007 914.9704'21-dc22 2006050726 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica ExceptintheUnitedStatesofAmerica,thisbookissoldsubjecttotheconditionthatitshallnot, bywayoftradeorotherwise,belent,resold,hiredout,orotherwisecirculatedwithoutthepublisher's priorconsentinanyformofbindingorcoverotherthanthatinwhichitispublishedandwithout asimilarconditionincludingthisconditionbeingimposedonthesubsequentpurchaser. Thescanning,uploadinganddistributionofthisbookviatheInternetorviaanyothermeanswithout thepermissionofthepublisherisillegalandpunishablebylaw.Pleasepurchaseonlyauthorized electroniceditions,anddonotparticipateinorencourageelectronicpiracyofcopyrightedmaterials. Yoursupportoftheauthor'srightsisappreciated. TO MY FRIENDS IN YUGOSLAVIA, WHO ARE NOW ALL DEAD OR ENSLAVED Kat TlJ~ 'lro{h,viJ~ 'lrarpioa 'lrapaaxov aVTot~, IJapaodaov 'lraA'~ 'lrO'W~ 'lroAira~ avrol;~. Grant to them the Fatherland of their desire, and make them againcitizens of Paradise. Note on Pronunciation The spelling ofYugoslavian names presents a serious problem. The Serbo-Croat language is spoken in all parts ofYugoslavia described in this book; but to write it the Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet (which is much the same as the Russian, but simpler) and the Croats use the Latin alphabet. Most foreign writers on Yugoslaviafollow the Croatian spelling, but this is not satisfacto ry.The Cyrillic alphabet is designed to give a perfect phonetic rendering of the Slav group oflanguages, and provides charac ters for several consonants which other groups lack.The Latin alphabetcan only representthese consonants byclappingaccents on other consonants which bear some resemblance to them; and the Croatianusage stillfurther confuses the English eye by using "c" to represent not "s" and "k" but "ts," and "j" for "y." I have found thatin practice the casual English reader is baffled by this unfamiliar use of what looks familiar and is apt to pass over names without grasping them clearly.I have therefore done my best to transliterate allYugoslavian names into forms most likely to convey the sound ofthem to English ears. Cetinje is written here asTsetinye,jaiceasYaitse,Pec asPetch,SestinjeasShestinye. KosovoIhavewrittenKossovo,thoughthe Serbo-Croatlanguage uses no double consonants, because we take them as a sign that the preceding vowel is short. This is a rough and ready method, and at certain points it has broken down. The Cyrillic alphabet provides special characters for representing liquid consonants; the Latin alphabet can only indicate these by adding "j" to the consonant, and this is ex tremely confusing at the end of a word. In pronouncing "Senj" the speakersays"Sen,"thenstarts to says a"y" sound, and stops half-way. The English reader, seeing "Senj," pronounces it "Senge" to rhyme with "Penge." But the spelling "Seny" makes him pronounceitasadisyllable;andifthe suggestionofthe Royal Geographical Society is adopted and the word is spelled "Sen'" he isaptfor some strangereasonto interpretthis sign as a Scotch V11 Vlll Black Lamb and Grey Falcon "ch." I have therefore regarded the problem as insoluble, and have left such words speltin the Croatianfashion, with the hope thatreaders willtake the presence ofthe letter"j"aswarningthat there are dark phonetic doings afoot. In "Bitolj," I may add, the "I" has almost entirely disappeared, having only a short "y" sound. I have also given up any attempt to transliterate "Sarajevo" or "Skoplje." For one thing "Sarajevo" is a tragically familiar form; and for another, it is not a pure Slav word, and has the Turkish word"sarac" afortress, embeddedin it,with aresulthardlyto be conveyed by any but a most uncouth spelling. It is pronounced something like"Sa-rai-ye-vo," with a faint accent on the second syllable, and a short"e."As for "Skoplie,"the one way one must notpronounce it isthe way the English readerwillcertainlypro nounce itifitis spelt"Skoplye."The "0"is short, and allthe let ters after it are combined into a single sound. I have committed another irregularity by putting an "e" into the word "Tsrna," so often found in place-names.This makes it easier for the English reader to grasp that the vowel sound in the rolled "r" comes be fore itandnotafter. R.W