Arabian sands / Wilfred Thesiger. Thesiger, Wilfred, 1910-2003, author.

New York : E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1959.

xvi, 326 pages, 42 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm + 1 folded map

Story of five years of travel with the nomad Arabs in the unknown deserts of Southern Arabia.

Arabian Sands is Wilfred Thesiger's record of his extraordinary journey through the parched "Empty Quarter" of Arabia. Educated at Eton and Oxford, Thesiger was repulsed by the softness and rigidity of Western life, "the machines, the calling cards, the meticulously aligned streets." In the spirit of T.E. Lawrence, he set out to explore the deserts of Arabia, traveling among peoples who had never seen a European and considered it their duty to kill Christian infidels. His now-classic account is invaluable to understanding the modern Middle East. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.