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Beyond Euphrates: Autobiography 1928-33
Freya Stark has fascinated the world with stories of her intrepid travels to the Middle East and lively accounts of her early life. In TRAVELLER'S PRELUDE she described her first journey, a trip through the Alps at the age of two. From that age on, she was a restless and charismatic sojourner and, fortunately for us, a born storyteller.
BEYOND EUPHRATES takes up the tale at the start of her Eastern travels in 1928 through 1933, undetered by an illness which threatened her life. Through letters and snatches of her diary, she describes Baghdad, life in a harem in Damascus, journeys in Persia and a treasure hunt in Luristan. In addition, she visited England and Canada, all the while maintaining her residence in Italy.
341 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
3 people are currently reading
185 people want to read
About the author
Freya Stark
129 books176 followersFreya Stark was born in Paris, where her parents were studying art. Her mother, Flora, was an Italian of Polish/German descent; her father, Robert, an English painter from Devon.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
In her lifetime she was famous for her experiences in the Middle East, her writing and her cartography. Freya Stark was not only one of the first Western women to travel through the Arabian deserts (Hadhramaut), she often travelled solo into areas where few Europeans, let alone women, had ever been.
She spent much of her childhood in North Italy, helped by the fact that Pen Browning, a friend of her father, had bought three houses in Asolo. She also had a grandmother in Genoa. For her 9th birthday she received a copy of the One Thousand and One Nights, and became fascinated with the Orient. She was often ill while young, and confined to the house, so found an outlet in reading. She delighted in reading French, in particular Dumas, and taught herself Latin. When she was 13 she had an accident in a factory in Italy, when her hair got caught in a machine, and she had to spend four months getting skin grafts in hospital, which left her face slightly disfigured.
She later learned Arabic and Persian, studied history in London and during World War I worked as a nurse in Italy, where her mother had remained and taken a share in a business. Her sister, Vera, married the co-owner.
In November 1927 she visited Asolo for the first time in years, and later that month boarded a ship for Beirut, where her travels in the East began. She based herself first at the home of James Elroy Flecker in Lebanon and then in Baghdad, where she met the British high commissioner.
By 1931 she had completed three dangerous treks into the wilderness of western Iran, in parts of which no Westerner had ever been before, and had located the long-fabled Valleys of the Assassins (hashish-eaters). During the 1930s she penetrated the hinterland of southern Arabia, where only a handful of Western explorers had previously ventured and then never as far or as widely as she went.
During World War II, she joined the British Ministry of Information and contributed to the creation of a propaganda network aimed at persuading Arabs to support the Allies or at least remain neutral. She wrote more than two dozen books based on her travels, almost all of which were published by John Murray in London, with whom she had a successful and long-standing working relationship.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 13, 2011
The second volume of Freya Stark's autobiography told in a mixture of narrative, letters and diary extracts covers her early travels in the far east - largely in Iraq and what is now Iran. An indomitable woman she learns Arabic, Persian as well as starting Russian, learns basic mapping skills so that she can provide information on unmapped areas, copes with suspicion (especially from fellow Brits) as a woman travelling alone and is continually running out of money. By the end of the book she is getting her writing published, giving public lectures and receiving awards for her insights into the geography, culture and history of remote areas. Hoorah!!
May 9, 2011
What a woman. Freya Stark not only went swanning around the wilds of Iraq and Persia on her own in the 1920s and 30s, learning Arabic and Persian, travelling where few Westerners had ever been, she also wrote about her experiences with great beauty and wisdom. A favourite passage: “Yet even when I felt most alone, I cannot ever remember wavering about my own path; I felt that other people might know what was good, but not that they knew better than I did what was good for me”.
Want to read
April 23, 2013Freya Stark was mentioned in To War with Whitaker
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
By Hermoine Ranfurly. They met during WW2.
April 14, 2021
"Life is so infinitely rich, that whatever happens we can always find in it enough to keep our spirit busy."
My first Freya Stark book, which I came across randomly, isn't really a "proper" travel book but more of a collection of letters written to friends, with a short introduction at the start of each chapter to describe the circumstances of her life at the time. This was more of an introduction to this fascinating woman, and I'll be sure to look out for her other travel narratives in future.
The letters are an uneven mix of the mundane and the mysterious. One comes away with such respect for a European lady who "hovered between respectability and the charms of independence" by traipsing around the Middle East in the 1920's and 30's, ALL ALONE. *gasp*
It was interesting to read of how she travelled to locations found on no map at the time, placing herself at the mercy of the hospitality of Bedouin tribes. It takes such trust in humanity, and courage bordering on recklessness, to seek out situations where one has very little control. It's enough to leave this modern reader with a feeling of horror mixed with admiration. Freya Stark would very often get sick ("One never knows whose cup one is drinking out of and must be grateful for catching only colds.") and injured, sometimes to the point of near death! But always, she would press on, seeking jobs when money would run out, living amongst the natives and learning to speak several languages along the way.
What a character! What a life she lived!
My first Freya Stark book, which I came across randomly, isn't really a "proper" travel book but more of a collection of letters written to friends, with a short introduction at the start of each chapter to describe the circumstances of her life at the time. This was more of an introduction to this fascinating woman, and I'll be sure to look out for her other travel narratives in future.
The letters are an uneven mix of the mundane and the mysterious. One comes away with such respect for a European lady who "hovered between respectability and the charms of independence" by traipsing around the Middle East in the 1920's and 30's, ALL ALONE. *gasp*
It was interesting to read of how she travelled to locations found on no map at the time, placing herself at the mercy of the hospitality of Bedouin tribes. It takes such trust in humanity, and courage bordering on recklessness, to seek out situations where one has very little control. It's enough to leave this modern reader with a feeling of horror mixed with admiration. Freya Stark would very often get sick ("One never knows whose cup one is drinking out of and must be grateful for catching only colds.") and injured, sometimes to the point of near death! But always, she would press on, seeking jobs when money would run out, living amongst the natives and learning to speak several languages along the way.
What a character! What a life she lived!
December 20, 2024
Quite an insight into the world during these years and into Ms. Stark. She is quite an individual.
December 22, 2023
No doubt there were many ways to be your own woman in the late 1920s going on 30’s, just as now. Freya Stark took the extreme route for those years, traveling alone east of the Mediterranean in Iraq and Persia, to the southern shores of the Caspian and back. This is her second volume of autobiography.
Each section summarizes the adventures of the year ahead, then switches to the immediacy of letters written at the time. There are pros and cons of the form, but no disguising her thrill at travel where few Europeans have gone before her, and practically no European woman.
She’s mostly broke. Moves ever eastward across wild, empty plateaux and high mountain passes on the backs of trucks or with donkey and guide, mapping she goes. And along the way adds Arabic and Persian to her English, French and Italian. By 1933, on a Venice-bound steamer home, she thinks she’s begun to crack Russian.
It’s her fortieth year. The Royal Geographical Society is impressed enough to award her a grant. She talks on the radio, has a book in the press and plans to use that grant to explore in Arabia. Join her for the thrills so far.
Each section summarizes the adventures of the year ahead, then switches to the immediacy of letters written at the time. There are pros and cons of the form, but no disguising her thrill at travel where few Europeans have gone before her, and practically no European woman.
She’s mostly broke. Moves ever eastward across wild, empty plateaux and high mountain passes on the backs of trucks or with donkey and guide, mapping she goes. And along the way adds Arabic and Persian to her English, French and Italian. By 1933, on a Venice-bound steamer home, she thinks she’s begun to crack Russian.
It’s her fortieth year. The Royal Geographical Society is impressed enough to award her a grant. She talks on the radio, has a book in the press and plans to use that grant to explore in Arabia. Join her for the thrills so far.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews