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| The Desert and the Sown: The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia | 
 enlarge | Author: Gertrude Bell
Publisher: Cooper Square Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.59
You Save: $8.36 (42%)
Buy New/Used from $9.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  (5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 272873
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0815411359
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.691043
EAN: 9780815411352
ASIN: 0815411359
Publication Date: December 25, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Desert explorer Bell's account of her 1905 trip across the Syrian Desert from Jericho to Antioch contains evocative descriptions and numerous photographs of the Middle East during its time under Ottoman rule.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Bad Intention Fulfilled June 24, 2008
Gertrude Bell was without a doubt one of the world's most interesting women, whose life and work converged at a crucial time in history. In carrying out Great Britain's ambitions in Mesopotamia, she almost single-handedly created a precarious nation from an assortment of tribes and faiths, inevitably fated to clash and collapse. Iraq is her handywork. The world will suffer the consequences for generations to come.
The Desert and the Sown May 30, 2008
Gertrude Bell, known as the Desert Queen, has written a book of her adventures during her travels in the Middle East. Bell,an Enlishwoman, a scholar, one of the first of her gender to graduate Oxford, is equipped with knowledge of languages, customs, and geography of Mesopotamia and modern Iraq. She writes with passion and uses exquisite descriptions and apt metaphors. Anyone interested in her eloquent prose, and wishes to learn about the history in her era and the cultures of the Arabian desert should read this book.
 A very innocent time November 27, 2005
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
Bell was one of many "arabists" who traveled throughout the Middle East near the end of the Ottoman empire. This book is really an interesting travelogue and insight into Middle Eastern culture from the view of a privileged English woman who was viewed as curiosity by those she visited and traveled with. In a way, this is a fairly innocent view of that part of the world, but you could do worse than read this book. Much of the clannish nature of the cultures she wrote about is unchanged from her era (and indeed, from centuries before) and is worth the couple of hours it will take to read this book.
Travels in Turkish Syria August 9, 2004
37 out of 37 found this review helpful
Gertrude Bell is probably one of the most interesting women of pre-World War I England. A daughter of privilege and she was educated and curious at a time when women of her class were expected to marry well and have children to police the Empire. Bell broke this mold and was the archetype of the "traveling Englishwoman" of the high British Empire.
Bell is today best remembered for her role in building modern Iraq. But the Desert and the Sown takes place before World War I, and details her adventures in Syria. Bell was not a professional archeologist and you will need to look elsewhere for detailed scholarly studies of the places she traveled. Her usual method was to go off and visit some famous or not so famous ruin, spend a day or two there taking pictures and etching inscriptions, and then moving on.
But this book is a remarkable travelogue of Syria and Palestine before World War I. She details her travels, the problems, the difficulties, who she met and what they talked about. The Turks rightly viewed her with suspicion - a child of the English ruling class, they saw her as an unofficial English agent, making contact with local tribal leaders who could be used against the Turks if war broke out.
The book is a quite remarkable insight into the politics of the near East, and given the current crisis, one that should be read by all looking to figure out where to go next.
My only compaint about the book is not Bell's writing, but rather the edition. The photographs would be better served on glossy paper, and better maps should be provided.
Marvelous Book March 10, 2003
78 out of 79 found this review helpful
Having read a current bio about Gertrude Bell (Desert Queen), which I found a bear to get through due to the less than amazing quality of writing, I was curious about Bell's own writings and thrilled to find some still in print. Gertrude Bell could write!! What a wonderful book. Having an interest in archaeology and the history of ancient civilizations, I enjoyed the material she offered. But even if those aren't areas of interest to you, the people she met and talked to give one a better understanding of the midEast and of people in general. This was a hard book to put down. My only desires were that a map had been provided and that all of her wonderful pictures would have been printed on glossy paper so they could have been better appreciated. (I would have paid the extra!)
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