Arabian Sands
Product ID: 75964403
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In the spirit of T.E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger spent five years wandering the deserts of Arabia, producing Arabian Sands , 'a memorial to a vanished past, a tribute to a once magnificent people'. The Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Rory Stewart. Wilfred Thesiger, repulsed by what he saw as the softness and rigidity of Western life - 'the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets' - spent years exploring in and around the vast, waterless desert that is the 'Empty Quarter' of Arabia. Travelling amongst the Bedu people, he experienced their everyday challenges of hunger and thirst, the trials of long marches beneath the relentless sun, the bitterly cold nights and the constant danger of death if it was discovered he was a Christian 'infidel'. He was the first European to visit most of the region, and just before he left the area the process that would change it forever had begun - the discovery of oil. This edition contains an introduction by Rory Stewart discussing the dangers of Thesiger's travels, his unconventional personality and his insights into the Bedouin way of life. Sir Wilfred Patrick Thesiger (1910-2003) was a British travel writer born in Addis Ababa in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Thesiger is best known for two travel books: Arabian Sands (1959), which recounts his travels in the Empty Quarter of Arabia between 1945 and 1950 and describes the vanishing way of life of the Bedouins, and The Marsh Arabs (1964), an account of the traditional peoples who lived in the marshlands of southern Iraq. If you enjoyed Arabian Sands , you might like T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom , also available in Penguin Modern Classics 'Thesiger is perhaps the last, and certainly one of the greatest, of the British travellers among the Arabs' Sunday Times 'Following worthily in the tradition of Burton, Lawrence, Philby and Thomas, it is, very likely, the book about Arabia to end all books about Arabia' Daily Telegraph Review: the survival . - it is very good. Review: From a Real "Bedu"! - From a different epoch comes this voice of a man who was a true explorer and adventurer...who did not just walked in conquered and left but the one who stayed back!...The book chronicles Eton-educated, pugilist, Sir Wilfred Thesiger's lifelong association with the Bedu people(origin of "Bedouin") of Arabian peninsula in a hand which is well controlled and also has pics from the era...What comes across is his real and everlasting love of the desert....its no twinkle-eyed account but a realistic potrayal of someone who can be called a true "Bedu"!
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| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 602 Reviews |
J**H
the survival .
it is very good.
V**A
From a Real "Bedu"!
From a different epoch comes this voice of a man who was a true explorer and adventurer...who did not just walked in conquered and left but the one who stayed back!...The book chronicles Eton-educated, pugilist, Sir Wilfred Thesiger's lifelong association with the Bedu people(origin of "Bedouin") of Arabian peninsula in a hand which is well controlled and also has pics from the era...What comes across is his real and everlasting love of the desert....its no twinkle-eyed account but a realistic potrayal of someone who can be called a true "Bedu"!
A**R
Four Stars
Good
B**A
Three Stars
a bit slow but detailed.
S**O
good book
very good book engaging all through. demands little patience.
A**R
The Bedu's indifference to human life..
Immensely liked the book..Bedouin ways were hard, even for those brought up in them and for Strangers terrible..a death in life..
N**O
A Classic
I'm only about a quarter through this book, and I'm enthralled. Takes you back to another world, before oil riches flowed, to a time when conditions were unrelentingly harsh and unforgiving, where the people were hard and austere, accustomed to a life of great demands and hardships, yet also capable of great courtesy and hospitality. The author explains why he was drawn into the desert and living with the Bedu and describes how the time he spent there was the happiest of his life. Thesiger served as a foreign service officer in Sudan for a number of years as a young man before setting off on his 2 crossings of the empty quarter in southern Arabia. He notes the great abundance of wildlife in Sudan: herds of thousands of elephants, an abundance of lions (he shot 70 himself on hunting trips while stationed there). It's such a sad shame that it's almost all gone now after years of poaching, over-hunting, and civil war. Though apparently there has been some return of these animals on a much smaller scale with some degree of peace in South Sudan. It's hard to imagine that a description of desert life--traveling with camels and how important they were to survival, the daily hardships and rituals of endurance that were just routine, the constant danger--would be fascinating, but it is. Even though Thesiger's travels happened only about 60 years ago, they seem taken from a different era, a much different and wild time. It is, for example, jolting to read that slavery still very much exists in Arabia at this time. And the religious fundamentalism is striking too: for example, a Beduoin is taken aback when Thesiger tells him that in England they have weathermen who can tell you when it is going to rain; the Bedu think that is something only God knows and that it is blasphemy to say otherwise.
A**A
Ottimo libro
uno splendido libro, scritto egregiamente e in maniera forse involontariamente accattivante che non attende che di essere tradotto in Italiano.
L**E
Romantic
I like that the book was written by the author when he was a bit older. He was able to retain his romantic view, but the a more wisened perspective. There were really interesting cultural tidbits.
E**U
More of a diary than a novel
Detailed descriptions of the Bedouin culture, but it's not a page turning novel. Definitely a great read before visiting the UAE.
M**A
Enchanted
Amazing book.
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