Customer Reviews

Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914

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Gertrude Bell was an English woman who lived an extraordinary life of adventure. She rode with bandits, braved desert shamals, was captured by Bedouins, and sojourned in a harem. The counselor to kings and prime ministers, her illustrious colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. Very highly recommended reading for women's studies, and 20th century studies reading lists and library collections, Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 is wonderfully illustrated with her photography and exemplifies her elegant, vibrant prose, as well as documenting her on of the 20th Century's most daring, resourceful, independent, and larger-than-life characters.

This is a book you cannot read like a novel; even as a diary, it is hard to understand, because entries are short and there are many unintelligible initials and half-words. It is a book for scholars, not for the average reader.

My purpose in reading this volume of Gertrude Bell's diaries was to learn about this powerful Englishwoman's adventures and discoveries in the Middle East written in her own words.
Rosemary O'Brien did an excelllent job of editing this material which I used as part of a book report on THE DESERT QUEEN. It helped me understand both Bell's professional life in which she helped create the modern Mesopotamia. It includes descriptions of life on the desert and in the city, and letters and the passions of her love life. The book also included many interestng photographs taken by Gertrude Bell.