Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Classics of World Literature)

Raw and well written a true classic by T E Lawrence

Would just like to lead off with absolutely amazed at the speed this delivery has came, did not expect til late this week and came today (the next day) a pleasant surprise and added to the excitement of reading. First things first, I am 26 years of age and have read military books and memoirs from all sorts of foreign nations and military figures through history because I was never truly taught a lot about the wars in my normal schooling however additional to this is the fact that the UK will only address in everyday schooling is what it was like in trenches during ww1 and maybe touch into the poems that were written to go alongside it, so to say my education is being taught a complete different side of a war that pretty much shaped modern Europe and I knew nothing about it upsets me completely because the true fact is I just thought "Lawrence of Arabia" was a film about an Englishman helping the Arabians with the ottomans being an issue to their country, NOT the actual fictional man and planning he did to rebel against the ottomans trying to take over the country for it's economical gems. Additionally the fact this man is such a controversial issue in this country and that people are not being taught about him and what he did is a serious let down in modern schooling. This all being said the book gives a true insight as best he can remember about he journey and the battles he fought, the military planning etc. Everything you'd expect from an officer of the British military and the education he possessed, credit where credit is due the man states on the very first page that most is done via memory and what he can't fully recall is a slight twist on fiction. Not too far into this and I already feel immersed in the time and experiences he's describing. It would definitely be a book I'd recommended mainly because memoirs tend to be worth a read and even if there is a twist of fiction with each one, but if you want to get to know more about the man behind the legend of Lawrence of Arabia pick it up.

Haven’t started reading yet , but physically a nice enough book. A tad pricey- but that’s ok

Information on a forgotten theatre of ww1

This was a nice-looking edition which came well wrapped and promptly. It is a fascinating description of his work in the near east during the latter days of the First World War. There is an excellent preface warning one to take some parts with a pinch of salt and it gives an insight into a very unusual man and also the beauty of the desert he travelled through and the way its inhabitants lived at that time. They seemed to eat hardly anything!

When I started this book at the introduction and through the early chapters, I found this a most fascinating insight into the Arab Revolt of the Great War, the people concerned in the conflict and the geography of the Arabian peninsular. As I progressed through the book, to page 187 so far, I realised that this was perhaps the most profoundly boring book that I had read for many years. Despite the unquestionable intellect of Lawrence, his writing is clumsy: the structure of the sentences being often ambiguous due to poor punctuation and his confusing changes in spelling of place name. He explains this in the introduction as irrelevant in the context of the story but this explanation comes across as another aspect of his obvious arrogance evident from his narrative. This book, so far as I have progressed, is less a story more simply a catalogue of Lawrence’s movements and the discussions of the conflict which, incidentally, Lawrence seems to have had virtually no influence, in contrast to my previous understanding from the famous film.I have now moved this book to that part of the bookshelf reserved for books which I thought were proper for me to read but in the end just proved too tedious. It joins War and Peace (p. 291), Ulysses (p. 160), Diary of Samuel Pepys (p.75) and Pillars of the Earth (p.577).One point in the book’s favour was its excellent print quality by Wordsworth Classics. I find modern print quality of a generally low standard: Fourth Estate books are particularly poor and a recent copy of Annie Proulx’s Postcards, at £7.99, was practically illegible in places.

Over forty years ago, an English Literature teacher suggested I read this book; I had shown a naive interest in the Middle East. But in 1962 I saw the movie, Lawrence of Arabia, again and again, and again. I still think it's my favourite all time movie, but now I wish I had read the book first!Reading all the introductory pages first was a mistake...I wish I had started where T.E.L begins. To analyse before reading (I found) distorts the flow of the well written tale. So read T.E.Lawrence first, then go back to see what his critics say. And, if you haven't already, then see the movie! There are critics a-plenty of Lawrence from beginning to end of that, and all in the best possible taste.It's a long, not always easy read, but well worth a little effort!

Allegedly full of errors, but still an insight into the desert war against the Turks.

Não vou mentir, o material q é feito o livro é bem ruinzinho, mas para o preço do livro vale a pena. A obra em si é incrível, mas uma coisa que me incomodou foi um pouco a confusão das localizações, mas acho q foi algo comigo mesmo, pq ao decorrer da leitura comecei a me localizar melhor.

Sehr interessanter Einblick in die Vergangenheit, kann ich nur empfehlen. Das Buch ist für den Preis in guter Qualität gedruckt und man kann sich über die Verarbeitung nicht beschweren.

T.E. Lawrence was a visionary and did his best to bring his vision to fruition. His insight into the Arab cultures and differences had many lessons. Many of these went unheeded and a different history of these lands and people has played out in a sad way. A great book I have given away about 9 copies.

The english is not my mother tongue. So for me was good the narration.But the book had a scratched in the back of the cover

Si tratta di un'opera troppo spesso dimenticata o fraintesa, che va letta - a mio avviso - in lingua originale. L'edizione è pregevole e la copertina contiene una bella opera d'arte, soprattutto per un amante del paesaggismo come me.