- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Pimlico; New edition edition (3 Jun 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1844134229
- ISBN-13: 978-1844134229
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.4 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
257,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Asia > Afghanistan
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Product Description
Book Description
'A brilliantly-wrought expression of a thoroughly modern sensibility, a portrait of an accidental man adrift between frontiers.' Jonathan Raban, New York Review of Books'What Ulysses is to the novel between the wars and what The Waste Land is to poetry, The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book.' Paul Fussell, Abroad
Product Description
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. His arrival at his destination, the legendary tower of Qabus, although a wonder in itself, is not nearly so amazing as the thoroughly captivating, at times zany, record of his adventures. 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 travellers. Here, 'armchair travellers will find newspaper clippings, public signs and notices, official forms, letters, "diary entries", essays on current politics, lyric passages, historical and archaeological dissertations, brief travel narratives (usually of comic-awful delays and disasters), and - the triumph of the book - at least twenty superb comic dialogues, some of them virtually playlets, complete with stage directions and "musical" scoring.' Paul Fussell, from the Introduction to the OUP US paperback, 1982 (20030723)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Byron's style of writing is perhaps exactly what you would expect of someone of his class and background writing in the 1930's but that is not to say it is not a pleasure to read this account of his extensive travels in the the Middle East. His occasional digressions into detailed architectural descriptions are perhaps not to everyone's taste (it is at times difficult to envisage the no doubt magnificent buildings he describes) but these are far outweighed by Byron's amusing accounts of other travellers, the local and colonial officials, Marjoribanks, perilous car journeys in torrential rains and the history of the countries he travels to and through. Well done Pimlico for keeping this in print.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Byron captures a particular type of traveller at a very particular time. This book is at once witty, eccentric and learned. It reads like a diary, with the throw away lines that you or I would insert for our own amusement sitting perfectly by the frustrations of uncomfortable journeys and frustrated plans in a very foreign place, along with intellectual discussions surrounding Persian architecture and its place as an equal alongside the great European masterpieces. The author, however, saves his most poisonous (and therefore hilarious) barbs for the ridiculously pompous and arrogant Europeans whom he comes across, in particular the rude and self-important Herzfeld, the archeologist chosen by the University of Chicago to excavate Persepolis, who treats this marvel of the ancient world as his own private preserve.
The story goes that Byron wrote this "diary" on his return, re-jigging events and dialogues with the luxury of time in the comfort of England. This would explain the book's sharp wit and canny construction. Recently, however, I heard that his diaries from the trip had been unearthed, revealing that everything in the book is taken verbatim from his diaries, only with some editorial pruning after the event rather than rewriting everything de-novo. Whilst altering the myth, this in my eyes makes his achievement even more remarkable, making his stories even more entertaining with the certainty of their verity.
A great book. I never thought I would want to visit Iran, but this book has changed that.
45 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Road to Oxiana is more than a travel diary, indeed it isn't really a diary at all although it reads like one, as Byron actually took several years to produce something that appears to have been written at the time. This is one of the all time classic travel books. Like Patrick Leigh Fermors' A Time of Gifts, also about a journey undertaken in 1933, this is a book by a young man who was experiencing the world at a momentous period between the two wars. Byron was 28, Fermor was even younger at just 19 and the age difference has lead to a more polished and certainly more readable style.
His humour and infectious enthusiasm for the countries he travels through and the people he meets starts with an apparent disaster with the non-arrival in Beirut of the experimental, and somewhat surreal, charcoal powered Rolls Royce that he had intended to travel in with his long suffering companion Christopher Sykes. We then continue on the road in a series of unpredictable and often ramshackle vehicles and an equal collection of unpredictable and ramshackle horses and ponies whilst continually dodging the Persian secret police who were desperate to find out what on Earth these men were doing.
Not for nothing is the book called the Road to Oxiana, as the River Oxus, which is ostensibly the destination, only gets a brief mention at the very end although I won't spoil the story by saying how. No, this is a book of a journey and the care and time that Byron took over his choice of words draws the reader into the extraordinary life of Iran at the peak of the Peacock throne, from unbelievable wealth to grinding poverty. We travel the length and breadth of this huge and truly spectacular country, about two thirds the size of the European Union with enormous mountain ranges and vast deserts all faithfully illustrated by Byrons' pen.
I first read the book whilst travelling around Iran myself and have returned to the book with increasing pleasure several times. I promise that you don't need to visit Iran to love this book although be warned it may make you want to go there as well.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Good Edition of a Classic
Anyone considering buying this absolute gem of travel literature should look no further than this edition, which includes the author's original black and white photographs.
Published on 7 Jun 2004 by Yellow Delaney
A truly precious book
I found it a bit difficult to get into "The Road to Oxiana" to begin with, despite a deep fascination with all things Persian, Afghan and Central Asian. Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2004 by Marcus Pailing (Bartlesnipe Returns)
Fabulous
Byron travelled through what was Persia and Afghanistan, between the wars, when apparently nobody from England stayed at home.
The depth and wit of Byron's writing is marvellous. Read more
Published on 8 Feb 2002 by Howard Mclaren
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