Customer Reviews

Arabia Felix: Yemen and Its People

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In reality, the Yemen is more troubled than most countries, with internecine strife a constant. Rare is the Yemeni leader who dies a natural death. The Romans named this area of the Arabian peninsula "Arabia Felix," the happy Arabia, no doubt because it is both green, and cool in the highlands.

This is the first of several books M. Marechaux has published on the Yemen, where he and his wife lived for numerous years. He is a professional architect, and his trained eye is superb at composing the elements of a stunning photograph, and this book contains many.

My favorite is the first, the stone bridge at Shahara, in the fog. The terraced fields of Djebel Milhan appear to be from another world more familiar, like Bali or the Philippines. The whitewashed mosque at Yafros, with adjacent tree and dark sky is excellent composition. He did not neglect the coastal region, the Tihama, with its strong African influences - at least 30% of the pictures are from this area. In his later works he has numerous quality portraits, in this book less so, no doubt since this was in his very early days in the Yemen, with the people getting used to him, and visa-a-versa. But his portraits of men, on pages 22 and 24, and of a woman on page 46 foreshadow what is to come in his later works.

The current price from the other sellers is outrageous on the one hand, since the author receives none of the proceeds, but also an indicator of the uniqueness and quality of this remarkable book. It very obviously needs to be re-issued.

YTour Web Site is great altho I can't figure out how to cancel an order in spite of finding "click on the order number to cancel". You've already sent me Arabia Felix, a lovely book, so please take it off back order. Thanx.