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  • Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics)
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Wilfred Thesiger
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Arabian Sands (Penguin Classics) Kindle Edition

by Wilfred Thesiger (Author), Rory Stewart (Introduction) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 566 ratings
4.2 on Goodreads
5,933 ratings

鶹

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Wilfred Thesiger was born in Addis Ababa in 1910 and educated at Eton and Oxford. Though British, he was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life, "the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets, etc." In the spirit of T.E. Lawrence, Thesiger spent five years exploring and wandering the deserts of Arabia. With vivid descriptions and colorful anecdotes he narrates his stories, including two crossings of the Empty Quarter, among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels.
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  1. Print length
    360 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Penguin
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    Oct. 25 2007
  6. File size
    11.7 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product description

Review

"The narrative is vividly written, with a thousand little anecdotes and touches which bring back to any who have seen these countries every scene with the colour of real life." —The Sunday Times (London)

About the Author

Wilfred Thesiger(1910-2003) was a British explorer and travel writer. He was born at Addis Ababa, Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Educated at Eton and Oxford, he worked in the Sudan Political Service and and later, for a year, as a Political Officer for the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie. He is best known for two travel books:Arabian Sands(1959) andThe Marsh Arabs(1964).

Rory Stewart(introducer) has written for theNew York Times Magazine,Granta, and theLondon Review of Books, and is the author ofThe Places In Between and The Prince of the Marshes. A former fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the British government for services in Iraq.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0010SKSYY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ Oct. 25 2007
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 11.7 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141904429
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • 鶹 Rank: #162,814 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 566 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
566 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

  • Em Flu
    5.0 out of 5 stars More of a diary than a novel
    Reviewed in Canada on August 26, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Detailed descriptions of the Bedouin culture, but it's not a page turning novel. Definitely a great read before visiting the UAE.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Annette R.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Arabian Sands
    Reviewed in Canada on February 15, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    Wonderful read, can't wait to read more of his books.
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  • Blues Feel
    4.0 out of 5 stars Memorable
    Reviewed in Canada on December 19, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    Very good. Best of travel writing with new experience acquired at considerable risk. Post war exploration written in clear and accessible style.
    One person found this helpful
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  • brad D.
    5.0 out of 5 stars thoroughly enjoying this book...
    Reviewed in Canada on May 28, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    The hype was true - this really is one of the classic reads on the subject. Arabian Sands provides a fascinating insight into the conditions and mind-set of desert living in that era.
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  • Scott
    5.0 out of 5 stars Thesiger makes Drab sound Exciting!
    Reviewed in Canada on March 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Its a classic for as reason!
    Purchased and read this book 2 times as I gave away the first copy, and missed it.
    5 years in the Desert landscape sounds boring, but its not!
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  • suzanne
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on May 15, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    This is a keeper.
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  • Ken of Gateway
    5.0 out of 5 stars For all armchair desert-lovers
    Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2018
    This book is a must-read for all desert-lovers. The book reads as slowly as a camel crossing the Empty Quarter, but is thoroughly mesmerizing in its recounting of the cultural and contextual details as Thesiger crossed the vast Empty Quarter of the Arabian peninsula by camel two times. The stories Thesiger tells are made all the more appealing by his obvious love and respect for the Bedu people, who helped him across "the sands" where no Westerner had ever before travelled. These desert adventures occurred just before the oil companies appeared on the scene, which Thesiger rightly feared would forever change the cultural landscape of the Bedu people, making this book a precious time capsule of an age we will never see again.
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  • Mike G
    4.0 out of 5 stars Be warned of the disappointing quality of the Kindle edition
    Reviewed in Canada on February 9, 2015
    Verified Purchase
    The book is fabulous however the Kindle edition is full of OCR errors. Very disappointing from a Penguin edition.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • jose joseph
    5.0 out of 5 stars the survival .
    Reviewed in India on February 27, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    it is very good.
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  • Andrea
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ottimo libro
    Reviewed in Italy on November 9, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    uno splendido libro, scritto egregiamente e in maniera forse involontariamente accattivante che non attende che di essere tradotto in Italiano.
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  • Linda Elmslie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Romantic
    Reviewed in Spain on January 1, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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  • Marcos Silva
    5.0 out of 5 stars Enchanted
    Reviewed in Brazil on July 5, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing book.
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  • Philip Green
    5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift
    Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This is one of my favorite books. There's something so grand about the scale and ambition of Thesiger's journey to the Arabian desert. His whole life was building up to this point. Born to an English family in Ethiopia, he took an interest in other cultures from an early age. Thesiger set out exploring places not yet known well to the Western world. He wasn't only interested in other cultures, he often admired them. An early exploration of his was to the Danakil in Africa. Along the way he took many great photographs that show people and ways of life before the onset of modernity. Thesiger also served with the British military in Africa during World War II. By the time he set off for the Empty Quarter of Arabia, he was already well acquainted with travelling in places with difficult terrain and alien cultures. In Arabian Sands he dives in to the Empty Quarter for a long period of time. He lives and dines with the nomadic Bedouin inhabitants. He learns about the tribes and their sometimes chaotic way of life. He is throughout this journey still a wealthy Englishman who never joins the tribe. Thesiger remains always an outsider looking in and chronicling a way of life he knows will soon be disappearing. He is often admiring of the Bedouin culture and fascinated by their mores. Even though I read this book many years ago, I remember when he writes about the Bedouin feeling sad when an animal (I can't remember which one) died. He relates how their outpouring of grief in that moment contrasted with their usual stoicism. There are so many fascinating people and scenes in Arabian Sands. It is really a gift to all of us from Thesiger. Whether you agree with Thesiger's opinions or not, his Arabian journey is a window to a place and time that existed in some shape or form for thousands of years but will probably never exist again.
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