Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia [Paperback]

Janet Wallach (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 12, 2005

Turning away from the privileged world of the "eminent Victorians," Gertrude Bell (1868—1926) explored, mapped, and excavated the world of the Arabs. Recruited by British intelligence during World War I, she played a crucial role in obtaining the loyalty of Arab leaders, and her connections and information provided the brains to match T. E. Lawrence's brawn. After the war, she played a major role in creating the modern Middle East and was, at the time, considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire.
 
In this masterful biography, Janet Wallach shows us the woman behind these achievements–a woman whose passion and defiant independence were at odds wit the confined and custom-bound England she left behind. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence, Gertrude Bell emerges at last in her own right as a vital player on the stage of modern history, and as a woman whose life was both a heartbreaking story and a grand adventure.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A biography of the woman who, indirectly, was the catalyst for many of the troubles in the Middle East, including the Gulf War. In 1918, Gertrude Bell drew the region's proposed boundaries on a piece of tracing paper. Her qualifications for doing so were her extensive travel, her fluency in both Persian and Arabic, and her relationships with sheiks and tribal and religious leaders. She also possessed an ability to understand the subtle and indirect politeness of the culture, something many of her colonialist comrades were oblivious to. As a self-made statesman her sex was an asset, enabling her to bypass the ladder of protocol and dive into the business of building an Empire. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

To Sir Mark Sykes, the pre-WWI British Foreign Office Arabist, "that damned fool," Miss Bell, created an "uproar" wherever she went in the Middle East and was "the terror of the desert." Three social seasons were all a young lady of good family was allotted to snare a husband. Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) had thrice failed and received the consolation prize, a trip to Teheran to visit her uncle, the British envoy there. After that, she could not be kept close to the dank family manse in Northumbria but was drawn to the sun-drenched Middle East. Dominated even there by her Victorian father, head of a family-owned ironworks, she was denied permission to marry a moneyless diplomat. She refused?to her later regret?a married lover in the military and assuaged her disappointment by pressing British interests in Arab lands east of Suez, becoming in effect the maker of postwar Iraq. The first woman to earn a first-class degree in modern history at Oxford, she wrote seven influential books on the Middle East and, following WWI, was named oriental secretary to the British High Commission in Iraq. Not just another book about an eccentric lady traveler, this colorful, romantic biography tells of a woman with an inexhaustible passion for place that did not always substitute successfully for continuing heartbreak. Despite some maudlin passages, Wallach, coauthor with her husband, John Wallach, of Arafat, vividly evokes a memorable personality.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Anchor Books (July 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400096197
• ISBN-13: 978-1400096190
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

129 of 149 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars A truly awful piece of writing December 17, 2003

By Paul Donovan

Format:Paperback

Gertrude Bell was, by all accounts, a woman who relished a challenge. She broke through the barriers of her era and environment, defying social norms and codes in order to achieve what even today is a remarkable list of accomplishments. It is therefore disheartening that a woman who overcame considerable barriers in life should be defeated posthumously by the obstacle of Ms Wallach's truly awful prose style.

The opening pages of "Desert Queen" seem to be written as a parody of early twentieth century pulp romantic fiction. As the reader struggles bravely on through the overuse of saccharine adjectives, the sickening realisation comes that this is not a parody - this is what Ms Wallach thinks appropriate for a biography of a woman of Gertrude Bell's character. The opening lines of the chapter on Baghdad cause the reader to recoil in horror. There is an earlier phrase about conversations bouncing around silk lined drawing rooms that leaves one gasping in disbelief.

The prose is quite bad enough to be going on with, but in addition there is more than a suspicion that historical accuracy has been dispensed with. The flowery descriptions of meetings and events leave the reader asking "how do we know that?" Was Gertrude Bell really meeting a local sheik with "eyes flashing like jewels" - and if from where do we get this fascinating insight? If from Gertrude Bell's own diary or letters, it would offer a fascinating glimpse into her self-perception and character. Ms Wallach does not want to burden the reader with sources or footnotes, and one is left with the distinct impression that this sort of comment is little more than an insight into Ms Wallach's own imagination.

Whole areas of Gertrude Bell's character are just ignored, or acknowledged in the most desultory fashion. This pioneering woman was against female suffrage - but no genuine examination or discussion of that is thought relevant. She was the only female political officer of the Indian Army in the First World War - but no attempt has been made to examine the attitudes of Whitehall to this - and no official sources appear to have been used to detail what the reaction was at home. Any competent biographer would have spent time and effort detailing these facets of her character - the reader of "Desert Queen" will be disappointed if they are seeking this sort of analysis.

Tantalisingly, and particularly towards the end of the book, we get glimpses of how fascinating Gertrude Bell's story is. When Gertrude Bell's own words are quoted at length, or at enough length to keep Ms Wallach's prose in check, the reader begins to understand that in the hands of a qualified biographer (and expert in the Middle East region) this is a life that could offer significant insights into society and politics in the twilight of the British Empire.

Ms Wallach's lightweight style of writing is ill suited to anything other than "celebrity" biographies. There is no comparison with, say, the works of Robert Blake or Roy Jenkins. Both Gertrude Bell and the English language deserve far, far better than Ms Wallach is capable of.

40 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A sweeping biography of a woman ahead of her time January 5, 1998

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

A sweeping, fascinating tale of a woman ahead of her time. This will written, well researched biography was hard to put down. Gertrude Bell herself, a contemporary of Lawrence of Arabia, was a complex, brilliant woman whose life was peppered with many tragedies as well as adventures. Diminutive in size, she scaled mountains, camped in the desert and broke bread with tribal chiefs. She felt more at ease in the Middle East than her own homeland of England, where Victorian women were ruled by social confines. Perhaps it was because of her sex that Arabians allowed her more carte blanche. In a countryland which shuts its women off like trophies, Bell was often treated more like a preistess. She had the audacity to be ultimately feminine and intelligent at the same time, which gave her a special status on foreign soil. Professionally, Bell triumphed, and was accepted as an authority on the Middle East. Her love life, however, as well as relationships with her own family, fell short. If you want to entreat yourself to an adventure of a female "Indiana Jones", I recommend this book. Even if you don't care for Gertrude Bell's character, you will not forget her.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Now we know who to blame July 18, 2006

By David W. Nicholas

Format:Paperback

This is an interesting book, the most popular biography of one of the most interesting people of the early part of the last century. Gertrude Bell is largely lost to history, which is a shame. She was an expert on Arab affairs and Middle Eastern politics, a true polymath back when you could be such a thing. She spoke numerous languages, wrote "travel" books (accounts of travels she'd had in exotic places), was an accomplished historian and archaeologist, and worked during World War I as what amounted to an intelligence agent, serving further as an advisor after the war, liasing with the Arabs in Iraq. In addition to all of the above, she mapped out the boundaries of the country that became Iraq, and late in life founded the first museum for antiquities in Baghdad. All this in a man's world, where women weren't supposed to venture.

This is a good book on most of the subject, though Wallach's understanding of the events surrounding Miss Bell is sometimes a bit weak. She also proves tone deaf with regards to British society and its niceties, portraying Bell's relationship with T.E. Lawrence ("of Arabia") as somewhat unlikely because he was from a "lower middle class" family while hers was of a much higher level. In reality, Lawrence was the illegitimate son of an impoverished Irish Baronet (certainly not lower middle class) while her family were newly wealthy (her grandfather and father mined coal and smelted iron and steel) and therefor likely to be looked down upon by those with titles. Despite these faux pas, the book is generally interesting, and conveys a sense of Bell's influence in the aftermath of World War I, when she was considered by some to be the most important woman, and one of the most important people, in the administration of the British Empire. I recommend this book.