Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914
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Book Overview
The Englishwoman Gertrude Bell lived an extraordinary life. Her adventures are the stuff of novels: she rode with bandits; braved desert shamals; was captured by Bedouins; and sojourned in a harem. Called the most powerful woman in the British Empire, she counseled kings and prime ministers. Bell's colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, who in 1921 invited Bell--the only woman whose advice was sought--to the Cairo Conference to "determine the future of Mesopotamia." Bell numbered among her closest friends T.E. Lawrence, St. John Philby, and Arabian sheiks.
In this volume of three of her notebooks, Rosemary O'Brien preserves Bell's elegant, vibrant prose, and presents Bell as a brilliant tactician fearlessly confronting her own vulnerability. The fundamental themes of her life--reckless behavior; a divided self which combined brilliance of intellect with a passionate nature; a sense of history; and the fatal gift of falling in love with a married man--are all here in remarkable detail. Her journey to northern Arabia in 1914 earned Bell professional recognition from the Royal Geographical Society, and solidified her reputation as a canny political analyst of Middle Eastern affairs. In addition to Bell's own photographs, O'Brien has provided us an unprecedented first access to excerpts of the Bell/Richard Doughty-Wyllie love letters, the married British army officer with whom she was in love and for whom her diaries were written.Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0815606729
ISBN13:9780815606727
Release Date:October 2000
Publisher:Syracuse University Press
Length:276 Pages
Weight:1.95 lbs.
Dimensions:1.1" x 7.3" x 9.3"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries 1913-1914
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
My purpose in reading this volume of Gertrude Bell's diaries was to learn about this powerful Englishwoman's adventures and discoveries in the Middle East written in her own words. Rosemary O'Brien did an excelllent job of editing this material which I used as part of a book report on THE DESERT QUEEN. It helped me understand both Bell's professional life in which she helped create the modern Mesopotamia. It includes descriptions of life on the desert and in the city, and letters and the passions of her love life. The book also included many interestng photographs taken by Gertrude Bell.
Very highly recommended reading for women's studies
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
Gertrude Bell was an English woman who lived an extraordinary life of adventure. She rode with bandits, braved desert shamals, was captured by Bedouins, and sojourned in a harem. The counselor to kings and prime ministers, her illustrious colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Very highly recommended reading for women's studies, and 20th century studies reading lists and library collections, Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 is wonderfully illustrated with her photography and exemplifies her elegant, vibrant prose, as well as documenting her on of the 20th Century's most daring, resourceful, independent, and larger-than-life characters.
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