Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Adviser to Kings by Janet Wallach

[gilda_elise]

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.

Bell’s life was truly a contradiction. Worldly, yet naive, Independent, yet very much swayed by the men in her life. Demanding to be treated as an equal to men, yet she didn’t support the suffragettes of her time. The book does an excellent job of explaining those contradictions by highlighting the men who shaped her life, especially her father, and those she would come to love, though eventually lose.

It’s a fascinating story. From the fall of the Ottoman Empire, to the transformation of Mesopotamia into the countries the world would come to call the Middle East, we see it through the eyes of this remarkable, yet ultimately tragic woman.

But it’s not just her story, though she had much to do with it. It’s also the story of “Arabia,” a place she would come to love more than her place of birth. It would be wonderful to see it as she did, as so much is now gone: Umayyad Masque of Aleppo, greatly damaged during Syria’s civil war, it’s in the very early process of being restored. The Temple of Baalshamin, destroyed by ISIS in 2015. But some still survives. Al-Ukhaidir Fortress in Iraq, which Bell discovered, though credit would be stolen from her. The ruined castle of Qasr al-Azraq in Jordan. The 7th century palace of Persian king Khosrow II at Qasr al-Mushatta.

A truly unique story of a most compelling part of the world. It well worth reading.




Mount TBR 2021 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

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4. Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella by Mikhail Baryshnikov
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7. The Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewing
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11. Ararat (Ben Walker #1) by Christopher Golden
12. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
13. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White Jr.
14. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
15. Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Adviser to Kings by Janet Wallach












2021 MONTHLY MOTIF READING CHALLENGE by girlxoxo



MARCH- Countries and Cultures. Read a book set in a country, or about a culture, that’s different than your own and that you’d like to learn more about.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia
by Janet Wallach

Comments

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

In reading the description you give, I have a feeling that I would become incredibly frustrated by her and end up not enjoying the book.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

It doesn't smack you in the face, but it's there. You can't say it was the times, because other women were making the leap, but she certainly made a difference in the world.

[wpadmirer.livejournal.com]

I can understand and applaud that, but on a personal basis, the influence men had in her life would make me want to smack the crap out of her.

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

That sounds fascinating! You find so many interesting books. You either have a great librarian, or you have the soul of one. :-)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I couldn't be given a greater compliment. :-)

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

As you can guess, I'm quite fond of librarians, myself. :-)

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Yes, I sort of got that. ;-)