Far Arabia: Explorers Of The Myth
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
Long before the age of satellites and GPS, a succession of daring, obsessive, and often eccentric Westerners risked everything to penetrate the vast, forbidding landscapes of the Arabian Peninsula — and Far Arabia: Explorers of the Myth chronicles their extraordinary journeys with vivid authority. Peter Brent presents a rich tapestry of adventure, tracing the footsteps of legendary figures such as Richard Burton, Charles Doughty, Wilfred Thesiger, and others who were drawn irresistibly to a world shrouded in romance, danger, and ancient mystery. Set against the sweeping backdrop of desert dunes, hostile tribes, and shifting political sands, the book uncovers what truly drove these men into the unknown — whether scholarship, glory, spiritual yearning, or sheer audacity. Brent argues compellingly that Arabia was never merely a geographical destination but a psychological and cultural obsession, a myth as much as a place, constructed as much by Western imagination as by cartographic reality. His prose is measured yet evocative, balancing rigorous historical detail with a storyteller's instinct for drama and character. As a collective biography and a meditation on the nature of exploration itself, the work illuminates the complex interplay between colonialism, romanticism, and the enduring human hunger for the unknown — leaving the reader to wonder whether the Arabia these men sought was ever truly found at all.
Author: Peter Brent
Format: Hardback
Genre: Travel & exploration
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Yellowed
Long before the age of satellites and GPS, a succession of daring, obsessive, and often eccentric Westerners risked everything to penetrate the vast, forbidding landscapes of the Arabian Peninsula — and Far Arabia: Explorers of the Myth chronicles their extraordinary journeys with vivid authority. Peter Brent presents a rich tapestry of adventure, tracing the footsteps of legendary figures such as Richard Burton, Charles Doughty, Wilfred Thesiger, and others who were drawn irresistibly to a world shrouded in romance, danger, and ancient mystery. Set against the sweeping backdrop of desert dunes, hostile tribes, and shifting political sands, the book uncovers what truly drove these men into the unknown — whether scholarship, glory, spiritual yearning, or sheer audacity. Brent argues compellingly that Arabia was never merely a geographical destination but a psychological and cultural obsession, a myth as much as a place, constructed as much by Western imagination as by cartographic reality. His prose is measured yet evocative, balancing rigorous historical detail with a storyteller's instinct for drama and character. As a collective biography and a meditation on the nature of exploration itself, the work illuminates the complex interplay between colonialism, romanticism, and the enduring human hunger for the unknown — leaving the reader to wonder whether the Arabia these men sought was ever truly found at all.