books 2009: The Southern Gate of Arabia, by Freya Stark
I first discovered Freya Stark in the travel writing class Heather and I took a few years ago--our professor photocopied a couple chapters of one of her books, and I remember being more intrigued with her than with anyone else we'd read--possibly because there were so few other women on the syllabus, but largely because of her poise, charm, humor, and sense of adventure. In this book, Stark didn't let me down.
In the early 1930s, Stark, a single British woman, traveled through southern Arabia alone, visiting country that few other Europeans had seen, particularly few women. This might sound incredibly dangerous, and it probably was, but Stark was helped along by her passion for Arabic history and her genuine interest in the people she met (as well as near fluency in Arabic, as far as I can tell). She befriends bedouins and sheiks alike, as well as their women (with the women she tends to rely on a natural love of fashion, which endears her to just about every harem she encounters, and she often comes away with gifts of beautiful clothes). Unfortunately, Stark's travels are beset by illness: she comes down with the measles, and though she recovers, she's later struck with heart troubles and has to be rescued by the R.A.F. Her biggest concern is the fact that she won't be the first European to explore the ruined city she wants to get to. She has more fortitude than many travel writers I've read (but she still travels with face cream!).
A few examples of her sense of humor:
In the city of Tarim, she visits a school:
"The three wise men looked at me with disapproval; it gradually lessened as they discovered that I knew such things as the difference between the 'Man Who Does,' and the 'Man to whom it is Done,' equally vital in Life and in Grammar." (page 221) (Of course I picked the grammar quote.)
At a different school, her arrival causes a holiday for the children:
"They had been learning by heart, that morning, the four different ways in which one is allowed to wash oneself--a necessary but not enthralling subject; and now there was a great closing of books.... and then the school of Huraidha, with whoops of joy, rushed out into the sunlight, where they no doubt soon got dusty enough to put the Rules for Ablution to a test." (pages 246-247)
Another passage that really moved me, from late in the book when she is very ill:
"I was losing my strength. I could not see my watch, but listened to a tiny pulse in my ear like a wave of life breaking on some unmapped shore, and waited for it to cease: when it did so, I should no longer be there to know; the thought was terrifying and strange, as every new venture must be. It was not my sins that I regretted at that time; but rather the many things left undone--even those indiscretions which one might have committed and had not. I was not troubled with repentance or sorrow, but rather, in a quiet light, saw the map of my life as it lay, and the beauty of its small forgotten moments: tea on an English lawn in summer, gentians in the hills, hot sweet scents of pinewoods in the south--all small and intimate things whose sweetness belongs to this world." (page 267)
I should admit that this was a difficult book to get through, and it took me a few weeks. I think this is because the language is so rich, and because it is true travel writing: not just the story of one person's journey, but a real picture of a place and a time and the people who lived there and how they lived. It's all the richer for that. I highly, highly recommend Freya Stark, and I'm looking forward to finding more of her work soon.
In the early 1930s, Stark, a single British woman, traveled through southern Arabia alone, visiting country that few other Europeans had seen, particularly few women. This might sound incredibly dangerous, and it probably was, but Stark was helped along by her passion for Arabic history and her genuine interest in the people she met (as well as near fluency in Arabic, as far as I can tell). She befriends bedouins and sheiks alike, as well as their women (with the women she tends to rely on a natural love of fashion, which endears her to just about every harem she encounters, and she often comes away with gifts of beautiful clothes). Unfortunately, Stark's travels are beset by illness: she comes down with the measles, and though she recovers, she's later struck with heart troubles and has to be rescued by the R.A.F. Her biggest concern is the fact that she won't be the first European to explore the ruined city she wants to get to. She has more fortitude than many travel writers I've read (but she still travels with face cream!).
A few examples of her sense of humor:
In the city of Tarim, she visits a school:
"The three wise men looked at me with disapproval; it gradually lessened as they discovered that I knew such things as the difference between the 'Man Who Does,' and the 'Man to whom it is Done,' equally vital in Life and in Grammar." (page 221) (Of course I picked the grammar quote.)
At a different school, her arrival causes a holiday for the children:
"They had been learning by heart, that morning, the four different ways in which one is allowed to wash oneself--a necessary but not enthralling subject; and now there was a great closing of books.... and then the school of Huraidha, with whoops of joy, rushed out into the sunlight, where they no doubt soon got dusty enough to put the Rules for Ablution to a test." (pages 246-247)
Another passage that really moved me, from late in the book when she is very ill:
"I was losing my strength. I could not see my watch, but listened to a tiny pulse in my ear like a wave of life breaking on some unmapped shore, and waited for it to cease: when it did so, I should no longer be there to know; the thought was terrifying and strange, as every new venture must be. It was not my sins that I regretted at that time; but rather the many things left undone--even those indiscretions which one might have committed and had not. I was not troubled with repentance or sorrow, but rather, in a quiet light, saw the map of my life as it lay, and the beauty of its small forgotten moments: tea on an English lawn in summer, gentians in the hills, hot sweet scents of pinewoods in the south--all small and intimate things whose sweetness belongs to this world." (page 267)
I should admit that this was a difficult book to get through, and it took me a few weeks. I think this is because the language is so rich, and because it is true travel writing: not just the story of one person's journey, but a real picture of a place and a time and the people who lived there and how they lived. It's all the richer for that. I highly, highly recommend Freya Stark, and I'm looking forward to finding more of her work soon.