Queen of the Desert: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell

Bon achat

It is disappointing that Amazon can't afford a bookmark for a book worth almost 500 bucks. The book is good and worth reading

Georgina Howell's biography of the phenomenal Gertrude Bell is both a tour de force and a work of love. Diana Athill's review states that this book is "Riveting, few women have had a life more worth reading about" and this is by no means hyperbole.This was the first I'd heard of Gertrude Bell and I now find that fact in itself astonishing. It's hard not to think that her rightful place in history has been denied by misogyny, for had any man undertaken all she did and lived the life she had he would be a household name, along with her more renowned contemporary and colleague T.E. Lawrence. Popular history is certainlythe poorer for not including Gertrude.Her story is beautifully written, covering her childhood to her eventual death in her beloved Iraq. Using her many letters and diaries, as well as her own political writings one is able to both hear and feel this remarkable, passionate, bright and determined woman who carved out her very own unique place in the world at a time when women were popularly considered incapable of intelligent thought.I won't attempt to cover her story here, but I will wholeheartedly recommend this as an informative, delightful and absorbing read.

After reading a hundred or so pages I grew dubious of Miss Howell's approach. It seemed soft-edged I thought, with an emphasis on flirtations and fashion. How wrong I was. Yes Bell was absorbed by her appearance and tragically disappointed in love, but as soon as Howell moves into the political arena of Gertrude's life her biography holds impressive substance. Her analysis of the context and challenges Bell faced in Mesopotamia is clear, concise andaccurate, to my thinking at least. Gertrude Bell emerges as a great Englishwoman, determined, stoical, extremely bright, fearless, clear thinking, and utterly admirable.

Eine extrem lesenswerte Biographie, aber sehr, sehr aufgehübscht. Vor lauter Weichzeichner hielt ich es an manchen Passagen kaum aus. Trotzdem ein umfassendes wie auch unterhaltsames Portrait dieser bemerkenswerten Frau.Sehr clever übrigens auch die Taktik der Autorin, die Lawrence-Fans für sich und Gertrude zu gewinnen, durch geschickt plazierte Zitate, Wortwahl und Betonung sowohl seiner Errungenschaften als auch seiner Freundschaft zu und Gemeinsamkeiten mit Gertrude. Ich amüsierte mich sehr über diese Winkelzüge.