Oxford University Press. Their richness is three-dimensional; it is attended by all the effort of shadow: In the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfullah, it is a richness of light and surface, of pattern and colour only. His observations are keen and his writing witty - I even laughed out loud twice. “The Road to Oxiana is part travelogue, part aesthetic manifesto, and part social observation; it remains the most thoroughly readable of all books. ISBN-10. And Byron is the ideal companion, witty, charming, irascible, and content to leave and be left alone.” The Places In Between by Rory Stewart rakerman: Both The Road to Oxiana and The Places In Between are very personal explorations of the people and the places encountered.Oxiana covers travels in Persia and Afghanistan in 1933, while The Places In Between is a walk across Afghanistan in 2002. Byron is British, and though his family lost their money, he was educated 'right.' This is a book that allows you to taste the tea, smell the leaves and the dust and feel the cool air of the oasis… AND to experience a by-gone world lost in the wars of the past thirty years. And Byron is the ideal companion, witty, charming, irascible, and content to leave and be left alone.” I agree. The Road to Oxiana offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures, but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. For example, he says of the Mosque of Sheikh Lutfullah, now listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO: I have never encountered splendour of this kind before. 0195325605. Traveling and spying was a time-honored tradition in Britain, but Byron was the separation point. A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana includes an introduction by Colin Thubron. Probably the most seductive opening paragraphs i've ever read. After many vicissitudes, The Road to Oxiana (the remote northern borderland of Afghanistan) became the record of his 11-month journey, a fabulous and intoxicating weave of surreal vignettes, journal entries and odd playlets. .Their purpose seemed professional or spiritual. The road to Oxiana Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. (The Guardian) N. B. . " This classic travel memoir is the diary-style memoir of an Englishman crossing Persia and Afghanistan in 1933. Business can't. The Road to Oxiana is a travelogue by the explorer Robert Byron, first published in 1937. VENICE, 20 AUGUST 1933. The actual writing of the book is odd and varied and quite modernist - Paul Fussell (who I will be adding to my booklist before long) says The Road to Oxiana is to travel writing what Ulysses is to the novel and The Wasteland is to poetry - a pretty heady claim! 4.5 out of 5 stars 22. I admired the form and style of this book maybe more than the content. Refresh and try again. ©1937 Robert Byron (P)2019 Naxos AudioBooks I kept picking the book up, but the entire time felt a temper tantrum simmering just below the surface. Here as a joy-hog: a pleasant change after that pension on the Giudecca two years ago. But every part the world he captures seems ancient history. .but they were often spies." It is not smothered, as in rococo; it is simply the instrument of a spectacle, as earth is the instrument of a garden. Nothing could be further from the truth, he hated that "sentimental romanticism" as he emphatically says even while being a somewhat pugilistic 'Orientalist' to the core. The Road to Oxiana is a travelogue by the explorer Robert Byron, first published in 1937. The book is an illustrated account of Robert Byron's ten-month journey to the Middle East in 1933–34. . $26.95 #6. Exasperating. 5.0 out of 5 stars 21. . (It is an area around the River Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya, which snakes down from southern Russia into northern eastern Afghanistan). Nor had I a clue where or what Oxiana is. The following are the places that have entries in the book (NB spellings used by the author sometimes differ from contemporary usage): The writer Paul Fussell wrote[2] that The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book what "Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry.". In 1933 the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana -the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. $13.91 #5. This travelogue is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing. Find books like The Road to Oxiana from the world’s largest community of readers. Today, widely considered to be Byron’s masterpiece, The Road to Oxiana stands as perhaps the greatest travel book of the 20th century. The writing is wonderfully descriptive, yet I never had the slightest idea what he was on about. Welcome back. A real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana includes an introduction by Colin Thubron. Rory Steward, who writes the introduction for this, says that before Byron, British travelers were 'heroes. Blue cloth with gilt lettering. Traveling and spying was a time-honored tradition in Britain, but Byron was the separation point. The things we are forced to do for book club. . Start by marking “The Road to Oxiana” as Want to Read: Error rating book. (The Guardian) N. B. The amount of detail about the towns (living and dead) and buildings and monuments he visits is overwhelming when you're reading it with your feet up at home, but it would very likely be amazing if you were standing in front of what's he's describing: "At Hamadan we eschewed the tombs of Esther and Avicennna, but visited the Gumbad-i-Alaviyan, a Seljuk mausoleum of the twelfth century, whose uncoloured stucco panels, puffed and punctured into a riot of vegetable exuberance, are yet as formal and rich as Versailles--perhaps richer considering their economy of means; for when splendour is got by a chisel and a lump of plaster instead of the wealth of the world, it is splendour of design alone." Typical of Byron, he be. When Paul Fussell published his own book Abroad, in 1982, he wrote that The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book what "Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry." In 1933 the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana -the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Nothing could be further from the truth, he hated that "sentimental romanticism" as he emphatically says even while being a somewhat pugilistic 'Orientalist' to the core. VENICE, 20 AUGUST 1933. 2000. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! When Paul Fussell published his own book Abroad, in 1982, he wrote that The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book what "Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry." . " Snarky, underfunded, antisocial, linguistically limited, and with a keen dislike of both his own people and those of other nations, Byron trekked through Iran and Afghanistan in search of architectural treasures. Robert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905, and educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford. Throughout, he kept a thoroughly captivating record of his encounters, discoveries, and frequent misadventures. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Power, Sister! So I think it is fair to say that I approached this book with some caution, finding the very last copy of it in a bookshop fortuitously soon after someone - whose opinion I value greatly - had mentioned it as being one of those Must-Read Unmissable gems of the twentieth century. Persian Tea Jasmine Lawi. . The greatest travel book ever written, following the journey of Robert Byron across the Middle East as he tries to reach the river Oxus, the old Greek name for the Amu Darya, on the northern border of Afghanistan. Chatwin called it “beyond criticism”. And we become exasperated with Byron because, as is so typical of this book, he expect people to recognize he's not a spy, merely a traveler looking as lovely Islamic architecture. And then I suddenly thought of that unfortunate species, modern interior decorators, who imagine they can make a restaurant, or a cinema, or a plutocrat's drawing-room look rich if given money enough for gold leaf and looking-glass. He encountered heat, cold, hunger and thirst and suffered the inconvenience of bugs, fleas, lice and physical illness. Today, in addition to its entertainment value, The Road to Oxiana also serves as a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers, and a nostalgic look back at a more innocent time. Rory Stewart, in his Preface (which like all prefaces and introductions is best enjoyed. Byron interacted with the locals and negotiated transport, including motor vehicles, horses and asses to carry him on his journey. 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