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Title: The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron ISBN: 0-19-503067-2 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1982 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Persia and Afghanistan When the Going Was Good
Comment: In the crepuscular post-September 11 world I find myself in, I thought I would go and read some of the classics of travel in the Middle East back when the going was good. Byron's OXIANA looked promising, so I curled up with it for a few enchanting days.
Byron was no lover of pre-packaged tourist sights. He begins by slurring Venice, where he begins his journey. Later, he slams the Taj Mahal and the Alhambra as examples of what he did NOT want to see in the Middle East. At first, I was not sure where the book was going: Byron comes across at first as one of those hypereducated upper class twits who pop in and out of Evelyn Waugh's novels. Fortunately, it turns out to be just one of the author's favorite personas he assumes from time to time.
Over half a century ago, he saw clearly what would happen to Palestine when the British pulled out, namely, that the Jews and Arabs would be at each other's throats. As he reaches Iran we finally begin to see what Byron is really after: He travels from one old mosque or ruin to another. Although none of places he describes in such loving detail are known to me, it was easy to see that here was a man who wanted to be one of the first to see some marvel of architecture and capture it in photographs and in prose before the forces of time would destroy it utterly.
In the process of going from place to place, he describes the Europeans and locals he meets with humor and shrewdness. The Middle East was not the easiest place to travel in the 1930s, and Byron ran into some almost insurmountable obstacles which he typically surmounts. One such is his arrival in Aghanistan's high country too late in the season. He backtracks to Persia and waits six months until he could return in the spring.
I highly recommend ROAD TO OXIANA to all who wish the world was safe and innocent enough for us to pursue our own Oxianas, wherever they may be.
Rating: 5
Summary: A travel with a book, a book to travel with....
Comment: In my opinion this book belongs to the aristocracy of travel literature, that old tradition beginning with Erodoto's 'Historiai'. You can see all the nuances of the sky over the islamic temples and the ancient babylonian ruins the author decribes so well, taste the flavour of the tea offered around the fire, hear the whispers in the moonlight or the loud voices of an oriental market, feel the sandy wind blowing on your face. I think no modern traveller was as able as Byron to blend together such cunning observations about society, history, landscape, art and people of the countries he travelled, without being pictoresque, or self-centered. You often feel yourself travelling with the author. Don't miss it!!!!
Rating: 4
Summary: Prose of grave beauty
Comment: A classic of erudite travel writing--about as far as you can get from PJ O'Rourke or Bill Bryson. Byron is astoundingly well-informed--or at least gives this impression. A glimpse of a lost world, swept away by AK-47s and landmines.
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Title: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby, Evelyn Waugh ISBN: 0864426046 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Valleys of the Assassins : and Other Persian Travels by Freya Stark ISBN: 0375757538 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 24 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: An Unexpected Light : Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot ISBN: 0312288468 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Baburnama : Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor by Jr. W.M. Thackston ISBN: 0375761373 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 10 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Light Garden of the Angel King: Travels in Afghanistan by Peter Levi ISBN: 1873429355 Publisher: Pallas Athene Pub Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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