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Name: In Patagonia (Penguin Classics): Bruce Chatwin, Nicholas Shakespeare: 9780142437193: Amazon.com: Books
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In Patagonia (Penguin Classics) Paperback – March 1, 2003

by Bruce Chatwin (Author), Nicholas Shakespeare (Introduction)

1,585 ratings

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The masterpiece of travel writing that revolutionized the genre and made its author famous overnight

An exhilarating look at a place that still retains the exotic mystery of a far-off, unseen land, Bruce Chatwin’s exquisite account of his journey through Patagonia teems with evocative descriptions, remarkable bits of history, and unforgettable anecdotes. Fueled by an unmistakable lust for life and adventure and a singular gift for storytelling, Chatwin treks through “the uttermost part of the earth”—that stretch of land at the southern tip of South America, where bandits were once made welcome—in search of almost-forgotten legends, the descendants of Welsh immigrants, and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy. An instant classic upon publication in 1977, In Patagonia is a masterpiece that has cast a long shadow upon the literary world.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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WARNING: California’s Proposition 65

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“A book to stand on the shelf with Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, and Paul Theroux.” —The New York Times Book Review“Bruce Chatwin joins the ranks of the great British travel writers with In Patagonia.” —The Washington Post

About the Author

Bruce Chatwin (1940–1989) was the author of In Patagonia, The Viceroy of Ouidah, On the Black Hill, The Songlines, and Utz. His other books are What Am I Doing Here and Anatomy of Restlessness, posthumous anthologies of shorter works, and Far Journeys, a collection of his photographs that also includes selections from his travel notebooks.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0142437190
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (March 1, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780142437193
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0142437193
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.6 x 5 x 7.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #79,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Argentinian History
- #99 in Travel Writing Reference
- #303 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

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1,585 ratings

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Bruce Chatwin

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Bruce Chatwin reinvented British travel writing with his first book, In Patagonia, and followed it with many travel books and novels, each unique and extraordinary. He died in 1989.

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Customers find this book to be a fascinating read with wonderful stories about people, and one customer notes how it substantiates these with literary and historical references. Moreover, the book serves as a great travelogue, and customers appreciate its many fascinating characters. However, the writing quality and narrative receive mixed reviews - while some praise the great prose, others find it difficult to read, and while some enjoy the episodic structure, others mention losing the plot in places. Additionally, the pacing receives negative feedback, with one customer describing it as too disjointed for their taste.

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Readability Interest Travel value Character development Enjoyment Writing quality Narrative quality Pacing

54 customers mention "Readability"49 positive5 negative

Customers find the book fascinating and brilliant, particularly noting it is great for travelers.

"one of my favorite books ever. unclassifiable. enigmatic and lucid and strange and beautiful. nothing like it except maybe WG Sebald." Read more

"...It is desolate and yet also full of beautiful wonders...." Read more

"...Nicholas Shakespeare’s introduction to the book is excellent and the book itself is one you will never forget...." Read more

"...Now, having taken the trip to this incredibly beautiful land, I have re-read the book...." Read more

52 customers mention "Interest"52 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fascinating and engaging, particularly appreciating the wonderful stories about the people and their lives. One customer notes how the author substantiates these narratives with literary and historical references.

"one of my favorite books ever. unclassifiable. enigmatic and lucid and strange and beautiful. nothing like it except maybe WG Sebald." Read more

"...His book tells its human history in short vignettes that expose an ugly reality of plutocratic rule of the British mixed with a bit of the Wild West..." Read more

"Befitting of a genius with an active and wide-ranging mind, Bruce Chatwin has a charm and intensity that might lead you to believe he has attention..." Read more

"When Bruce Chatwin’s classic and offbeat travel narrative “In Patagonia” first appeared in 1977, many readers didn’t know what to think of it...." Read more

10 customers mention "Travel value"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a great travelogue, with one customer noting it is particularly valuable for trips to Chile and Argentina.

"One of the greatest travel books of all time...." Read more

"Great travelogue/ novel- doffs hat to Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. Fun. One of the remaining Wild West frontiers." Read more

"...Part travelogue, part history, this book really takes you to the desolation of the land where you meet Welsh, a Russian double amputee nurse and..." Read more

"...Although it is even more valuable if traveling to Chile and Argentina, it's a great read for anyone. Not your ordinary travel book." Read more

7 customers mention "Character development"7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book, noting its many fascinating and colorful personalities.

"...recommend this book if you like amazing, eccentric, even weird characters...." Read more

"...There's a rich history of characters that are rooted in the place. In the end, I was happy I'd stuck with it." Read more

"This book contains many fascinating characters and some incredible stories...." Read more

"...Otherwise the colorful characters are wonderful just as colorful character descriptions." Read more

6 customers mention "Enjoyment"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fun to read, with one describing it as engaging and exciting.

"...And yet, it is still overall an enjoyable work...." Read more

"Great travelogue/ novel- doffs hat to Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. Fun. One of the remaining Wild West frontiers." Read more

"Maybe not for everyone, but I found it to be an inspiring and entertaining read before my own Patagonian adventure...." Read more

"A fun, exciting, (somewhat) true book about the mystery and awe of Patagonia." Read more

38 customers mention "Writing quality"24 positive14 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality of the book, with some praising its great prose and describing it as oddly compelling travel writing, while others find it difficult to read.

"...However, Chatwin shows traces of poetic brilliance ("music ghosted from the piano as leaves over a headstone"), an eye for metaphor..." Read more

"...Still a classic after nearly forty years. Chatwin's writing is almost dreamlike at times, and others, when he slides back into a story of Darwin, or..." Read more

"...Frankly, reading it was a slog. At places the sense of continuity from chapter to chapter existed, but not always...." Read more

"...is no guidebook, but is full of evocative writing and peerless at describing the setting. It also offers an ethical challenge and bit of a mystery...." Read more

14 customers mention "Narrative quality"5 positive9 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the narrative quality of the book, with some finding it beautifully done while others describe it as aimless and rambling.

"...Unfortunately, Chatwin's narrative is short on dialogue and his description of people is typically terse and short on details, which prevents..." Read more

"...The structure is episodic, making it easy to pick it up and put it down at any time...." Read more

"...proven since it's publication to be full of fictional or not properly recreated stories, but regardless, you will never forget this book...." Read more

"...It had little or no literary or dramatic strength for me...." Read more

4 customers mention "Pacing"0 positive4 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book disjointed and poorly structured.

"...of Patagonia and Patagonians, I found the book too disjointed a collection of impressions. It had little or no literary or dramatic strength for me...." Read more

"...As for the book, it was a bit too clever for my tastes, it was more a reflection of the writer's imagination than the countryside." Read more

"Got bored about half way through and put it down. Too disjointed for my taste...." Read more

"Beloved by many, I found it poorly structured, written, and often directionless. Sometimes charming and interesting, but ultimately over-rated...." Read more

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nothing like it
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2025
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one of my favorite books ever. unclassifiable. enigmatic and lucid and strange and beautiful. nothing like it except maybe WG Sebald.

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Susan
It is desolate and yet also full of beautiful wonders. His book tells its human history in ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2014
Verified Purchase
I started In Patagonia a few years ago, but put it down. I did not get the point. I didn't understand its relevance until I visited Patagonia on a 32 days trip. I picked up the book again and read it in my spare time on the road along the way. Now I get it. Once you travel the path Bruce Chatwin followed, you understand that Patagonia is a unique phenomena. Its expansiveness is breathtaking. It is desolate and yet also full of beautiful wonders. His book tells its human history in short vignettes that expose an ugly reality of plutocratic rule of the British mixed with a bit of the Wild West. This book is truly a treasure!

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Robert Reid
genius or attention deficit disorder?
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2008
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Befitting of a genius with an active and wide-ranging mind, Bruce Chatwin has a charm and intensity that might lead you to believe he has attention deficit disorder. Drifting from one narrative thread to the next between chapters (each just a few pages long), he delves deep into the story of each person he meets, and substantiates these stories with literary and/or historical references. Though a few themes recur (e.g., the search for the lost mylodon and the story of Butch Cassidy's escape to Argentina), this is a book that is easy to put down between fragmented sections. And yet, it is still overall an enjoyable work.

Travelers are far more likely to go to Patagonia to avoid people than to learn about them, but Chatwin gracefully pulls of this challenge. Selflessly, he leaves himself out of the story- though Nicholas Shakespeare's introduction notes that Chatwin had a noteable love affair and was arrested in Chile. Unfortunately, Chatwin's narrative is short on dialogue and his description of people is typically terse and short on details, which prevents characters from coming to life. However, Chatwin shows traces of poetic brilliance ("music ghosted from the piano as leaves over a headstone"), an eye for metaphor (noting that in the obscure Yaghan language the word for depression is the same as the word for a crab's vulnerable phase after sloughing off a shell), persistence (evidenced by his uncovering of the origin of the name Patagonia), and bits of dry humor ("The Indian settlements were strung out along the railway line on the principle that a drunk could always get home.").

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George W.
Reminiscent of "On the Road" and "Blue Highways"
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2017
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When Bruce Chatwin’s classic and offbeat travel narrative “In Patagonia” first appeared in 1977, many readers didn’t know what to think of it. Its publication coincided with my sophomore year at seminary and—boggled down with theological tomes and a recently acquired fondness for the works of John D. MacDonald--I missed the event altogether. It was to be forty years before one of my children (they are all avid readers, God bless ‘em!) brought the book to my attention. Chatwin had been working with the (London) Sunday Times Magazine when an interview with the elderly architect Eileen Gray inspired him to see the varied and desolate area that lies at the southernmost tip of South America. The rumor (not exactly true) is that Chatwin left a note for his employer that read simply, “Have gone to Patagonia.”

Gone to Patagonia! How often have we on a day-dreamy kind of afternoon wanted to make the same journey? Patagonia is a region whose struggles and eccentricities are richly woven into the historical fabric of the South American continent. In modern times, Patagonia has been the refuge of scoundrels, outlaws, misfits of all kinds and individuals orphaned by time or by fate.

Nicholas Shakespeare’s introduction to the book is excellent and the book itself is one you will never forget. I read it this time for pleasure but will read it again someday to unravel some of its mysteries. There are too many names and dates and places to absorb on a first encounter with “In Patagonia.”

If you haven’t read it—do yourself a favor. Put aside that book that is boring you and read about this place called Patagonia which lies at the very ends of the Earth.

Reminiscent of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” and William Least-Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways,” Chatwin’s “In Patagonia” will grip you and never let you go.

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50 people found this helpful

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Jo Ann Simpson
More poetry than travelogue
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2020
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I bought this book to get a sense of Patagonia before a planned trip. Frankly, reading it was a slog. At places the sense of continuity from chapter to chapter existed, but not always. I found myself wanting more details about the area, a la Rick Steves. Now, having taken the trip to this incredibly beautiful land, I have re-read the book. On my trip, I learned most of the omitted details, so this time I found what was written made more sense. Like reading Shakespeare or Milton is enriched by a working knowledge of the Bible, having a personal knowledge of Patagonia makes Chatwin's stories more realistic. For example, Chatwin devotes several pages to the story of Jemmy Button. He wrote that Jemmy appeared in his native attire at an event in Great Britain and cleared the room. Such a description only makes sense if you know that Jemmy's native attire was his birthday suit. Similar lack of details occurs throughout the book. Like poetry requires the reader to bring as much knowledge to the language as possible, so this book requires a knowledge of Patagonia to be fully appreciated.

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Billy-Burroughs
南米放浪記
Reviewed in Japan on September 24, 2009
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自分は紀行文芸にあまり詳しくありませんが、日本語版を読んでこれも読みたくなり購入しましたが、いやあ、愉快でおもろい。すらすら読めました。
残念ながらチャトウィンは短命でした。純粋におもしろい文芸作品をいっぱい書いてくれたので…いや、それでも長生きして欲しかったですね。
「明日に向かって撃て！」「ワイルドバンチ」…そういう時代は過ぎましたが、夢見るイングランドのチャトウィンはやっぱりこういうアウトロー映画にも惹かれるのですね。
そういえば、ウルトラヴァイオレンス炸裂の『〜バンチ』はイギリスでもフランスでも崇拝されています。（ウォーレン・オーツのインタヴューより）まあ、優れた映画や文芸は国境を越えて楽しまれるべきだと思います。

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Sasanka Baruah
A great travel book !
Reviewed in India on June 9, 2021
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One of its kind in its genre !!

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Clive Viegas Bennett
Extraordinary - In Patagonia’s reputation is profoundly deserved
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 25, 2018
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I really should have read, and meant to read, this book years ago. Chatwin is regularly listed among the top 10 travel writers along with my favourites Eric Newby, Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron and Bill Bryson. I would add the great Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, in particular "Patagonia Express".

Patagonia is one of the most beautiful places on the planet and one of the most remote. Chatwin describes the heart wrenching scale of the landscape and the lost specks of astonishing human endeavour in this vast, lonely region.

Above all, he entrances us with an astonishing and haphazard cast of eccentric, wild, bad and downright crazy people that such an unforgiving land has attracted from all over the world. He reminds us, without preaching, that huge estates were built on the exploitation of the poor - the local indigenous and those shipped in from the Chilean islands of Chiloé.

Don’t hesitate, this book will make your life richer. Like all the best books it is unputdownable and will live in your psyche long after you have read the last page.

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Len Berg
Este livrro marca minha juventude
Reviewed in Brazil on September 17, 2021
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nada Mais

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Xavier
Dan ganas de largarse lejos...
Reviewed in Spain on February 19, 2013
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Increíble relato de un auténtico trotamundos. Sentirás la llamada de la Patagonia al instante con sus descripciones, tanto paisajísticas como de sus gentes. Yo ya he ido!!! :D

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Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars nothing like it

4.0 out of 5 stars It is desolate and yet also full of beautiful wonders. His book tells its human history in ...

3.0 out of 5 stars genius or attention deficit disorder?

5.0 out of 5 stars Reminiscent of "On the Road" and "Blue Highways"

4.0 out of 5 stars More poetry than travelogue

Top reviews from other countries

4.0 out of 5 stars 南米放浪記

5.0 out of 5 stars A great travel book !

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary - In Patagonia’s reputation is profoundly deserved

4.0 out of 5 stars Este livrro marca minha juventude

5.0 out of 5 stars Dan ganas de largarse lejos...

nothing like it

It is desolate and yet also full of beautiful wonders. His book tells its human history in ...

genius or attention deficit disorder?

Reminiscent of "On the Road" and "Blue Highways"

More poetry than travelogue

南米放浪記

A great travel book !

Extraordinary - In Patagonia’s reputation is profoundly deserved

Este livrro marca minha juventude

Dan ganas de largarse lejos...