Overview

"""Travels in Arabia Deserta"" is considered to be one of the finest books ever written on Arabia, admired for the beauty of its prose and valued as being one of the most important 19th century portraits of Arabia and its people. Embarking on an adventure that had not been attempted by even the most intrepid explorers of the day, Charles Doughty travelled for nearly two years through the desert interior of the great Arabian Peninsula.Openly proclaiming himself a Christian and an Englishman, Doughty wandered through the desert, living with and as a bedouin, experiencing and recording a way of life that has now disappeared forever. His account - published here in paperback for the first time is a truly indispensable classic of travel literature on the Middle East. First published in two volumes in 1888, this authorised single-volume abridgement by Edward Garnett, the noted Bloomsbury author, was re-discovered by TE Lawrence in the 1920s and with his enthusiastic support became recognised as the milestone of travel literature that it truly is."

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9781845118105

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I have talked the book over with many travellers, and we are agreed that here you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals. They are told of the life, with words and phrases fitted to them so perfectly that one cannot dissociate them in memory. It is the true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom. There is no sentiment, nothing merely picturesque, that most common failing of oriental travel-books. Doughty's completeness is devastating. There is nothing we would take away, little we could add. He took all Arabia for his province, and has left to his successors only the poor part of specialists. We may write books on parts of the desert or some of the history of it; but there can never be another picture of the whole, in our time, because here it is all said. --T.E. Lawrence<p> Doughty's purpose was to study the people and examine the ancient ruins and monuments of the land. Everything he set out to do he did. He has wonderfully reproduced his impressions. The work is an achievement in the realm of pure literature, apart from its interest as an account of remarkable journeys. -- New York Times <p> One of the greatest travel books in literature. No book of Arabian travel is comparable with Doughty's in romantic interest. Not since the Elizabethan voyagers has there been any parallel to it. It is a great story, told in a great manner, a masterpiece of style and a record of heroic doings. -- The Spectator <p> Mr. Doughty's book is surely the supreme book of travel... It will be studied as long as travel books have any attraction for mankind. -- Times Literary Supplement <p> One of themighty oaks of English travel writing in particular and English literature in general. Beyond its Shakespearean completeness, its immediacy and humanity, and its majestically archaic prose, the special greatness of this book lies in the fact of its author having become an adventurer and explorer of cold necessity rather than by choice. The fact, astonishing as it may seem, must be stated plainly: Travels in Arabia Deserta is not only an incomparably better book than The Seven Pillars of Wisdom; it is also a vastly more exciting one. -- National Review

<p> I have talked the book over with many travellers, and we are agreed that here you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals. They are told of the life, with words and phrases fitted to them so perfectly that one cannot dissociate them in memory. It is the true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom. There is no sentiment, nothing merely picturesque, that most common failing of oriental travel-books. Doughty's completeness is devastating. There is nothing we would take away, little we could add. He took all Arabia for his province, and has left to his successors only the poor part of specialists. We may write books on parts of the desert or some of the history of it; but there can never be another picture of the whole, in our time, because here it is all said. --T.E. Lawrence<p> Doughty's purpose was to study the people and examine the ancient ruins and monuments of the land. Every

I have talked the book over with many travellers, and we are agreed that here you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals. They are told of the life, with words and phrases fitted to them so perfectly that one cannot dissociate them in memory. It is the true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom. There is no sentiment, nothing merely picturesque, that most common failing of oriental travel-books. Doughty's completeness is devastating. There is nothing we would take away, little we could add. He took all Arabia for his province, and has left to his successors only the poor part of specialists. We may write books on parts of the desert or some of the history of it; but there can never be another picture of the whole, in our time, because here it is all said. --T.E. Lawrence Doughty's purpose was to study the people and examine the ancient ruins and monuments of the land. Everything he set out to do he did. He has wonderfully reproduced his impressions. The work is an achievement in the realm of pure literature, apart from its interest as an account of remarkable journeys. -- New York Times One of the greatest travel books in literature. No book of Arabian travel is comparable with Doughty's in romantic interest. Not since the Elizabethan voyagers has there been any parallel to it. It is a great story, told in a great manner, a masterpiece of style and a record of heroic doings. -- The Spectator Mr. Doughty's book is surely the supreme book of travel... It will be studied as long as travel books have any attraction for mankind. -- Times Literary Supplement One of the mighty oaks of English travel writing in particular and English literature in general. Beyond its Shakespearean completeness, its immediacy and humanity, and its majestically archaic prose, the special greatness of this book lies in the fact of its author having become an adventurer and explorer of cold necessity rather than by choice. The fact, astonishing as it may seem, must be stated plainly: Travels in Arabia Deserta is not only an incomparably better book than The Seven Pillars of Wisdom; it is also a vastly more exciting one. -- National Review

<p> I have talked the book over with many travellers, and we are agreed that here you have all the desert, its hills and plains, the lava fields, the villages, the tents, the men and animals. They are told of the life, with words and phrases fitted to them so perfectly that one cannot dissociate them in memory. It is the true Arabia, the land with its smells and dirt, as well as its nobility and freedom. There is no sentiment, nothing merely picturesque, that most common failing of oriental travel-books. Doughty's completeness is devastating. There is nothing we would take away, little we could add. He took all Arabia for his province, and has left to his successors only the poor part of specialists. We may write books on parts of the desert or some of the history of it; but there can never be another picture of the whole, in our time, because here it is all said. --T.E. Lawrence<p> Doughty&#8217;s purpose was to study the people and examine the ancient ruins and monuments of the land.

Author Information

Charles Doughty (1843-1926) was a poet, writer and one of the greatest of all Western travellers in Arabia. He was the author of several acclaimed books, most famously 'Travels in Arabia Deserta'. In 1912 he was awarded the Founder's Gold Medal by the Royal Geographical Society.

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