The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt [Paperback]

Isabel Eberhardt (Author), Elizabeth Kershaw (Editor), Nina Voogd (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

In her short life Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) came to be known as the ultimate enigma and representative of everything that seemed dangerous in nineteenth century society. Born the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic Russian emigree she was a cross-dresser and sensualist, an experienced drug-taker and a transgressor of boundaries: a European reborn in the desert as an Arab and Muslim, a woman who reinvented herself as a man, wandering the Sahara on horseback. A profoundly lonely individual for all her numerous sexual adventures, she roused controversy and was loved and hated in equal measure. A mysterious attempt was made on her life and even her eventual death was ambiguous: she drowned in the desert at the age of twenty-seven.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...makes riveting reading, and throws light on a desert world that remains obscured by bigorty and ignorance." -- The Sunday Times (London)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books; Trade Paperback Edition edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566565081
• ISBN-13: 978-1566565080
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Travel > Africa > Algeria
  • #40 in Books > History > Africa > Algeria

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing life, a one-of-a-kind diary, May 27, 2004

By 

M. Bromberg "BellemeadeBooks" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (Paperback)

The unusual life and bizarre death of Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) remains a mystery. Dressing as a man, she traveled through Saharan Africa and drowned -- in the desert -- at age 27, which only emphasizes the uniqueness of the written record she left behind. Unlike the works of other desert adventurers such as Sir Richard Burton and T. E. Lawrence, Eberhardt's diary never clarifies why she endured these hardships, or why her life was such a complex tangle that there was an attempt on her life shortly before she drowned. Her unsettling story of gender deception, unaccompanied travel in Islamic society, and unresolved death is so far out of cultural norms that her story is seldom told, and makes this diary all the more intriguing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vivid writing - difficult life, July 25, 2006

By 

Dhyan Atkinson "Dhyan" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (Paperback)

This is a book I remembered for 30 years and went back one day recently to find. I was not disappointed although I can see why this book appealed to me so strongly as a 20 year old. Isabelle is an amazing writer. Like the writers of haiku, Isabelle captures the beauty of the desert around her and her feelings about her life in so few words and yet so beautifully. Her love of her adopted country and religion season her view and experience of life. One might wish she had had a happier time of it or been a little better at making a living, but overall this brief book is an amazing contribution to the world by a very unusual person. I highly recommend it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beutiful writer that is sadly little known, April 15, 2007

By 

Gogol (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (Paperback)

It is such a pity that Isabelle Eberhadt is so little known because there is something about her that can be found in all of us.

She was a free thinking, independent woman at a time when it was hardly the thing to do. She converted to Islam by her own free will but remained her own person, she did not conform to an image of what Islam should be or what others thought it should be nor did she just convert and then melt into the mass of her fellow co-religionists.

She maintained much of her anarchist upbringing and lead a life that was free from and restraints. She endered the Qadiri Sufi order and seemed to have taken the order seriously practicing the prayers that she was ordered to perform.

She travelled deep into Algeria and wrote of the land and its people with a style that reflects her own free spirit. She would not be confined by anyone and perhaps it was that which brought about an attempt on her life and the anger of the colonial powers who ruled Algeria.

She lead a lonely life but seemed to have had several partners. Her life was full of contradictions and this book, her diaries reflects all of that. The life of a young woman who would not be restrained neither by the times that she lived in, the culture that she was from nor the religion that she had chosen to convert to. This book captures the wild mystery of a life that was lived both in the deserts of Africa and amongst the cities of Europe.

A beutiful book recomended to anyone who still has the spirit of travel or the love of the writings of someone who chose to life life as they wished to live it.