About book Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life Of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser To Kings, Ally Of Lawrence Of Arabia (2005)
I really enjoyed this book, even if it was a challenging read. Challenging because there was so much information which was new to me. I learned about the transformation of Mesopotamia into the new nation of Iraq. I learned about the transformation of the Middle East as a result of the First World War. I learned about Gertrude Bell. I needed the depth of this book to really understand. I am glad I read this book rather than what I originally sought: Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia, but which I could not get. The life of Gertrude Bell was for me even more interesting than that of the renowned T. E. Lawrence. She deserves much more recognition than she has been given. Although I enjoyed Dreamers of the Day, this book, Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia, gives much, much more. There is no comparison between the two even if I have given both four stars. Keep in mind that one is fiction and the other non-fiction!What makes this book remarkable is that it teaches both history, WW1 and the Middle East, and is a biographical exposé on a remarkable woman: Gertrude Bell. Other books of course discuss people in a historical setting, but here we get great depth into the personality of the woman as well as the mark she left on history. I am often drawn to biographical books, but less frequently is the historical aspect as fascinating as the biographical. Here is what is important: many historical details are given, but how one historical event leads to another is easy to follow. History is made simple. And then there is Gertrude Bell. Not only is what she accomplished in her lifetime fascinating, but also her personality is exceptional. She was scathingly blunt. She was exceptionally intelligent. She had such moral integrity. She never gave up until ….well I cannot tell you that! Other people may not like her. I did. When things went wrong she gritted her teeth and went on. She was both feminine and soft and strong as steel. And yet with her father she was always a child, even at fifty! She wanted a husband and children and yet never married. She was a woman of her time, the Victorian age, but repeatedly defied social restrictions; her closest friends were all men. She was British through and through, but her real home was in the East (Iraq). She was certainly a queen of the desert. She was a woman of contradictions. After reading this book I know who she was, not just what she accomplished. I had difficulty with the Arabian names, but that is because I was listening to an audiobook. The narrator, Jean Gilpin, must be complimented in always reading slowly; there is a lot to absorb. Gilpin's reading is steady and unhurried when covering historical themes. You also hear in the narrator's voice different inflections when reading Gertrude's sentimental, heartfelt letters to her father or lovers and her critical, blunt retorts to less favored acquaintances. The reading follows the lines of the author well, only occasionally over dramatizing the lines.I wondered sometimes if what we were being told was favorably biased in Gertrude’s favor. Quotes from her letters are numerous. We are more often given her thoughts, rather than opposing views. Much of the book feels in this way almost autobiographical, and how balanced is that? I believe this is why I found the book short of amazing and why I gave it four rather than five stars.If you enjoy biographies of historical figures, this is a must read. I highly recommend it.
Today's news, the utter destruction of the ancient city of Aleppo and much of the chaos in the Middle East might be credited to the handy work of Gertrude Bell, the Desert Queen of the title, who drew the untenable boundaries that form modern Iraq. The story of this unlikely wielder of power in the Middle East is both fascinating and commonplace. A woman bereaved at the death of her suitor, whom she'd rejected, goes traveling to relieve her spirits. Gertrude Bell was not the only early 20th century woman to excursion on her own through what was still the Ottoman Empire, but through her wealthy, industrialist family she had political connections. A woman of remarkable self assertiveness, vanity and, apparently, a vivacity of mind appealing to Arab men as a sort of non-female female, she made friends with sheiks wherever she went -- and developed a nearly unique knowledge, among the English, of the personalities and geography of Mesopotamia. Thus she was given an official position with the British government when, after WWI, it found itself in possession of territories of the defeated and collapsed Ottoman Empire. Bell, a romantic eager to supply a kingdom for her friend Feisal (who had been expelled by the French from the kingdom he was promised in the equally newly designed Syria) was not solely to blame for the borders of Iraq. Oil already was an issue. Winston Churchill, as head of the British navy, had converted the fleet from using coal for fuel -- which Britain itself could supply -- to faster-propelling petroleum. But Britain had no petroleum, and Mosul did. Hence the newly designed country of Iraq must encompass Mosul and its surrounding land of Kurdistan -- recognizing of course that this new land was not really to be an independent monarchy under Feisal, but should be under British mandate. Feisal was a foreigner, from Mecca, not Iraqui Mesopotamia, and had only one, rather feeble, young son. But never mind. everybody liked him. If Feisal looked sad it was for good reason, while he managed to survive in this pasted together kingdom where not only the Kurds wanted out but the Sunnis and Shiites were, as ever, at each others throats, Feisal's son and grandson quickly were assassinated. Few women in all of history have ever had so much power -- and made such a mess. Wallach is fond of her subject but the vanity, audacity and incompetence show through in this meticulous exploration of how a sad, romantic young woman became the pivotal authority in shaping the modern Middle East. Obscure by her own wish, Bell is virtually unknown compared to her ally T.E. Lawrence, but her ultimate effect was far greater.Wallach is a superb biographer. Her magnificent study of Chanel is staggering in its abundance of photographic material as well as information. Wallach's choices of subject aren't frivolous: Chanel in some ways changed the world as significantly as did Bell, though with a more positive result -- by being a major influence in releasing women from inhibiting corsets and long skirts that limited their freedom of movement. How much might the comfortable clothes of the 20th and 21st century have contributed to the equality of women in the workplace? I highly recommend the books of Janet Wallach.
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An extraordinary woman with a very unusual life for her day, indeed for any era. What she achieved would paradoxically be even harder for a woman in the middle East during current political and religious constraints.I found the style a little irritating, swinging from a melodramatic, almost Mills & Boon style romantic novel - one disastrous love affair after another - to a more astute commentary on Gertrude's life and contribution to world history. The vocabulary was a little jaded and repetitive as "she scrawled" umpteen letters to her Father, or cast a glance with her "piercing blue eyes". I also found it lacking in objectivity in her difficult relationships with others. Having said that, it was a welcome insight to a life I had heard nothing about before. Her final days were described with pathos and I really felt for her declining in influence and losing friends, becoming more isolated and lonely, with a death scene befitting of a biopic in the genre of those about Marilyn Monroe. I read this book as a follow up to "Hero:The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia" by Michael Korda, to get another perspective on the events of Arabia before, during and in the immediate aftermath of WW1. It certainly added to my understanding - each author standing by their subject as the main protagonist in the events. Both had an interest in Archaeology, both a love of the Arab peoples and an ability to gain their respect. Lawrence was a clever military strategist and a brave warrior; Gertrude Bell equally brave and foolhardy, with a brilliant knack for diplomacy and political savvy. Whilst Lawrence seemed driven by childhood demons coming from a family with a socially ambiguous status and secret shame, Gertrude, although having lost her mother aged 3, had a wonderful relationship with her Father, almost hero-worshipping him. Driven to make him proud of her achievements, she was also a workaholic who, brought to states of severe depression through tragedy in love found escape in her work. This was expressed through a determination to play a pivotal role in the shaping of the political landscape of the Middle East and become "a Person".Through reading both books I have found it much easier to understand why we are where we are today. The influence of decisions made during those post war years is still felt now and we can trace back many of our current problems back to those years.
—Deborah Lonsdale
I found this book a bit disappointing. Gertrude Bell lived at a time of great change, especially in the Middle East which she adopted as her second, or perhaps primary, home. Due to her intellect and her gift for languages, she was able to mingle with different groups in the Middle East, and then write clear eyed documentation about those different groups. It is hard to imagine what kind of personality could do that, especially considering she was both a woman and a westerner, in cultures that trusted neither. Unfortunately, the book didn't give me too many insights into those qualities. The book does liberally quote Bell's letters, which are interesting and well written. A talented biographer knows how to include quotes and details that made the setting more vivid. Unfortunately, in this book, these details often seem like digressions. The biographer did provide some insights into life at that time and Bell's character, but some of these insights were repeated. Gertrude Bell led an interesting life, but I thought the book was a bit of a slog.
—Brad
History is full of women who, stifled by the restriction of society in Victorian England, set out for more liberating parts unknown. Such a woman was Gertrud Bell, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist in Yorkshire and one of the first women to graduate (with a First in Modern History) from Oxford. Finding herself unfitted for English society and mourning a failed romance, she took a trip to Palestine and thus, began a lifelong romance with the Mid-East.Not one to do anything by halves, Bell learned Arabic, tramped all over the desert, met with tribal and religious leaders, and became an expert in the Byzantine politics of the region. She also, through her family connections, became well acquainted with the movers and shakers in the political world. All this paid off during World War I when her expertise was put to good use by the British military and intelligence services.She and T.E. Lawrence became close friends and allies along with Sir Percy Cox, the chief British figure in Mesopotamia. Constantly scheming and pulling strings, Bell drew the boundaries of modern Iraq and got her candidate installed as king of the country.While truly remarkable, as you read the book, you can see that the seeds of the current political and military disasters in the Middle East were clearly sown during Bell's time: the colonial excursions to secure an oil supply, the ignorance of local culture and customs, and the frankly racist disregard for the Arab population. One would hope that countries would learn something from their past mistakes, but apparently not.
—Andie
