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A Winter in Arabia
In 1934 Freya Stark made her first journey to the Hadhramaut in what is now Yemen—the first woman to do so alone. Even though that journey ended in disappointment, sickness, and a forced rescue, Stark, undeterred, returned to Yemen two years later. Starting in Mukalla and skirting the fringes of the legendary and unexplored Empty Quarter, she spent the winter searching for Shabwa—ancient capital of the Hadhramaut and a holy grail for generations of explorers. From within Stark’s beautifully-crafted and deeply knowledgeable narrative emerges a rare portrait of the customs and cultures of the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula. A Winter in Arabia is one of the most important pieces of literature on the region and a book that placed Freya Stark in the pantheon of great writers and explorers of the Arab World.
328 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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1159 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 - 30 of 35 reviews
August 22, 2011
I read this in parallel with the recent, excellent bio of Stark, Passionate Nomad, by Jane Fletcher Geniess. Stark's lyrical descriptions of people and settings in the Middle East are matched only by T. E. Lawrence. I became a nuisance with this book, trailing my husband around the house, reading out quotes.
February 6, 2013
In our loving review of her first book, Baghdad Sketches, I wrote that "Freya Stark was famous for her unwillingness to be a shrinking violet, her willingness to travel alone through sites that the colonials had decided were altogether too beastly ... places, they thought, that no sane woman should visit either with others, or, worse, alone."
I think she was able to get by in such solitary journeys because she had an extra sensitivity to the cultures she was visiting ... was careful not to jog the prejudices that prevailed then (that prevail now) in the Middle East: most certainly with regards to the solitary woman.
We suggested that she was sturdy, opinionated, fearless, and witty, though she was certainly not going to describe herself as that. She was traveling through one of the blighted areas of Arabia, in a time of world-wide depression, in an area filled with suspicion of the colonials.
She was certainly indefatigable, and in the present volume, we again come across a valiant but at the same time charming lady who must have seemed indestructible. If she was told that the only way to make it to her goal was by camel, she had them heist her up there and she was off. If it was by donkey, she dutifully mounted it, even if it was a sulky beast (one appears here that we would gladly have strangled; she didn't.)
But she was human, at the ends of the earth (Southern Yemen of eight decades ago). She got ill, came down with what she called "the Arabian microbe," despite her best effort not to do so: "pouring iodine on cuts, inhaling menthol before going to sleep, and swallowing things like kaolin and charcoal after a more than usually picturesque meal."
Her microbe hangs in there for so long that it is almost midway through Winter in Arabia before she can leave her bed there in Hureidha and take off (by camel) for the city of Bal Hal on the northern coast, and then on to Aden. So it is only partially a travel book. But Stark being a lively sort, and a great writer, even her time in convalescence engages us --- and those about her (the children refuse to leave her alone).
She speaks the language (ours too). She's willing to have her hands painted with henna (a local custom). She can gossip with all, can turn a simple encounter with one of the locals into a funny tale of dealing with customs, outlined with a crucial delicacy.
Once, Fatima came to visit, and she chances on an old issue of Vogue. Stark had not "had the time to tear out two naked ladies advertising bath salts:"
I hastened to say that it is a paper exclusively circulated in harems.
"Are they real?" said she.
"Oh no," I said with relative truth: they have the improbable silhouette invented by advertisers. "They are just Jinn."
"Fatima was overcome by the female beauty of Europe," Stark concludes. "She kissed her forefinger and pressed it on the prettiest of the mannequins and said, "May Allah shower good on them."
It is her ability to sketch out the situation for us, along with her affection and sensitivity to this distant culture --- so far from the Europe in which she grew up --- that makes her such an affecting companion on this new journey of hers. When she finally gets underway, she wonders why she is doing it at all. As we all do, especially when we go through the Badlands, the Travail of Travel, she wonders why we bother at all. But she explains it away by quoting a local prophet, Sayyid Abdulla, the watch-maker: "To leave one's troubles behind one; to earn a living; to acquire learning; to practice good manners; and to meet honorable men."
§ § §
One of Stark's greatest virtues --- at least to this reader --- is her ability with the language, her keen turn of phrase. This on meeting with a local dignitary: "The Mansab comes out from his carved doorway in a green turban and cloak, green jacket gold-buttoned beneath it, the men of his family behind him; he is so holy, people do not kiss his hand, they bend over and sniff at it audibly, so as to breathe up a whiff of the sanctity as if it were snuff."
She is obviously fearless. I don't know if that word is capable of conveying what she goes through (the purpose of her journey, we gather, is mostly with collecting plant species and searching out ancient inscriptions). She not only comes down with a pernicious sickness, she then passes through civil war, slave raids, destitution, shootings, and has always to deal with attempted blackmail and constant besiegings by crowds of the curious, "cheerful and determined to get money if they could."
Her protection?
The bodyguard of 'Azzan had turned out behind me, indistinguishable to all outward appearance from the enemies they were supposed to deal with: in these bedouin crowds it was always difficult to tell one's own protectors from one's foes.
She's tough, wily, resourceful, and well informed (she hopes) by her bedouin companions. But at one point, all seems in vain. Her guard 'Ali turns obtuse, leaves her just outside the village of Lamater. The crowds press in on her, cutting her off. She thinks of turning back, just getting out.
The thought of more trouble with him, and the fatigue of twenty-two hours of camel in two days with a saddle that rubbed, together with the nagging of the bedouin renewed by fresh reserves in an unending stream, all so acted, that I suddenly felt tears rolling down my cheeks, a spectacle which sobered 'Ali in one instant.
The one time in her journey when she shows her fear, a fear that would have haunted the rest of us nonstop, is the moment that saves her; it is the moment when she lets down her disguise of almost knight-like bravery.
Finally, when she arrives in her resting place for the night, she finds her friends waiting for her, "rejoicing over the success of our adventure at Kadur."
To them in their day-to-day fight, it was a victory over the bedouin; prestige, it appeared, had been maintained. "If you had turned back," they said, "no one in this country would have believed you when you said that you belong to the nation of the English."
For more reviews visit www.RalphMag.org
I think she was able to get by in such solitary journeys because she had an extra sensitivity to the cultures she was visiting ... was careful not to jog the prejudices that prevailed then (that prevail now) in the Middle East: most certainly with regards to the solitary woman.
We suggested that she was sturdy, opinionated, fearless, and witty, though she was certainly not going to describe herself as that. She was traveling through one of the blighted areas of Arabia, in a time of world-wide depression, in an area filled with suspicion of the colonials.
She was certainly indefatigable, and in the present volume, we again come across a valiant but at the same time charming lady who must have seemed indestructible. If she was told that the only way to make it to her goal was by camel, she had them heist her up there and she was off. If it was by donkey, she dutifully mounted it, even if it was a sulky beast (one appears here that we would gladly have strangled; she didn't.)
But she was human, at the ends of the earth (Southern Yemen of eight decades ago). She got ill, came down with what she called "the Arabian microbe," despite her best effort not to do so: "pouring iodine on cuts, inhaling menthol before going to sleep, and swallowing things like kaolin and charcoal after a more than usually picturesque meal."
Her microbe hangs in there for so long that it is almost midway through Winter in Arabia before she can leave her bed there in Hureidha and take off (by camel) for the city of Bal Hal on the northern coast, and then on to Aden. So it is only partially a travel book. But Stark being a lively sort, and a great writer, even her time in convalescence engages us --- and those about her (the children refuse to leave her alone).
She speaks the language (ours too). She's willing to have her hands painted with henna (a local custom). She can gossip with all, can turn a simple encounter with one of the locals into a funny tale of dealing with customs, outlined with a crucial delicacy.
Once, Fatima came to visit, and she chances on an old issue of Vogue. Stark had not "had the time to tear out two naked ladies advertising bath salts:"
I hastened to say that it is a paper exclusively circulated in harems.
"Are they real?" said she.
"Oh no," I said with relative truth: they have the improbable silhouette invented by advertisers. "They are just Jinn."
"Fatima was overcome by the female beauty of Europe," Stark concludes. "She kissed her forefinger and pressed it on the prettiest of the mannequins and said, "May Allah shower good on them."
It is her ability to sketch out the situation for us, along with her affection and sensitivity to this distant culture --- so far from the Europe in which she grew up --- that makes her such an affecting companion on this new journey of hers. When she finally gets underway, she wonders why she is doing it at all. As we all do, especially when we go through the Badlands, the Travail of Travel, she wonders why we bother at all. But she explains it away by quoting a local prophet, Sayyid Abdulla, the watch-maker: "To leave one's troubles behind one; to earn a living; to acquire learning; to practice good manners; and to meet honorable men."
§ § §
One of Stark's greatest virtues --- at least to this reader --- is her ability with the language, her keen turn of phrase. This on meeting with a local dignitary: "The Mansab comes out from his carved doorway in a green turban and cloak, green jacket gold-buttoned beneath it, the men of his family behind him; he is so holy, people do not kiss his hand, they bend over and sniff at it audibly, so as to breathe up a whiff of the sanctity as if it were snuff."
She is obviously fearless. I don't know if that word is capable of conveying what she goes through (the purpose of her journey, we gather, is mostly with collecting plant species and searching out ancient inscriptions). She not only comes down with a pernicious sickness, she then passes through civil war, slave raids, destitution, shootings, and has always to deal with attempted blackmail and constant besiegings by crowds of the curious, "cheerful and determined to get money if they could."
Her protection?
The bodyguard of 'Azzan had turned out behind me, indistinguishable to all outward appearance from the enemies they were supposed to deal with: in these bedouin crowds it was always difficult to tell one's own protectors from one's foes.
She's tough, wily, resourceful, and well informed (she hopes) by her bedouin companions. But at one point, all seems in vain. Her guard 'Ali turns obtuse, leaves her just outside the village of Lamater. The crowds press in on her, cutting her off. She thinks of turning back, just getting out.
The thought of more trouble with him, and the fatigue of twenty-two hours of camel in two days with a saddle that rubbed, together with the nagging of the bedouin renewed by fresh reserves in an unending stream, all so acted, that I suddenly felt tears rolling down my cheeks, a spectacle which sobered 'Ali in one instant.
The one time in her journey when she shows her fear, a fear that would have haunted the rest of us nonstop, is the moment that saves her; it is the moment when she lets down her disguise of almost knight-like bravery.
Finally, when she arrives in her resting place for the night, she finds her friends waiting for her, "rejoicing over the success of our adventure at Kadur."
To them in their day-to-day fight, it was a victory over the bedouin; prestige, it appeared, had been maintained. "If you had turned back," they said, "no one in this country would have believed you when you said that you belong to the nation of the English."
For more reviews visit www.RalphMag.org
February 25, 2015
I received this book from a dear friend and it spent years on my bookshelf until I finally finished it. What a bizarre book for a modern Arab-American to read. On the one hand, Stark is completely phenomenal to be a woman with two other female companions in rural Yemen in the 1930s. She speaks fluent Arabic and has an understanding of the culture that, frankly, I've never seen in many modern books about this part of the world. There are incredibly funny moments where the locals trick her into buying things or solving their disputes. However, there is always that strange balance between her obvious love of the Yemeni people and her firm feeling of superiority. She is wildly learned, quoting poets and philosophers in Greek and Latin. It is impossible to not see it as the colonial, rich, white woman come to be amongst the "natives." Still, her discussions about the treatment of women in this part of the world and the ways in which women interact in community are fascinating. A beautiful counter to all the male explorers of the era.
October 5, 2015
This half-journal / half-diary recounts Stark's second trip to Arabia, made during the unprecedented time of "Ingram's Peace" in 1937, named after the British political officer Harold Ingrams. It's hard to believe, but we Brits were actually popular in Arabia at this time. How things change!
Stark travels in the company of two other women, a game geologist, who joins in with the festivals, and an archaeologist uninterested in the locals or their customs (she wears a pair of trousers, which is tantamount to an insult).
Stark herself is searching for the old "incense road" and the lost biblical town of Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding.
Unusually for a classic travel book, Stark actually spends nearly half of it in bed ill with various fevers, laid low by every malign Arabian "microbe" in a time before vaccination.
Alongside her illnesses, the travelling party were hampered by the rebellious Humumi tribes, who have been encouraged by Italian agitators to close the major roads through acts of banditry, so for three months no actual travelling was done.
But Stark still had her diary and her observations. She is constantly visited by the fascinated residents of the wadi, using her nursing skills to treat various ailments and her money to buy their trinkets. She is very popular.
She lists ten virtues for travelers, of which she highlights "a ready quickness in repartee" as being particularly important when amongst Arabs. Also, "To the Arab, manners are everything; he will forgive any amount of extortion so long as 'your speech is good.'"
Clearly Stark's speech was good as she took extraordinary risks, a white woman alone amongst the beduin, and came through.
Also, her writing is good, which is why she has a lasting legacy as more than just an adventuress, but as a writer too. I liked the classical, Shakespearian and Victorian quotes she used to introduce each chapter or diary entry.
But most of all I like her indomitable spirit, which shined as brightly as the stars in the Arabian night sky.
Stark travels in the company of two other women, a game geologist, who joins in with the festivals, and an archaeologist uninterested in the locals or their customs (she wears a pair of trousers, which is tantamount to an insult).
Stark herself is searching for the old "incense road" and the lost biblical town of Cana, where Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding.
Unusually for a classic travel book, Stark actually spends nearly half of it in bed ill with various fevers, laid low by every malign Arabian "microbe" in a time before vaccination.
Alongside her illnesses, the travelling party were hampered by the rebellious Humumi tribes, who have been encouraged by Italian agitators to close the major roads through acts of banditry, so for three months no actual travelling was done.
But Stark still had her diary and her observations. She is constantly visited by the fascinated residents of the wadi, using her nursing skills to treat various ailments and her money to buy their trinkets. She is very popular.
She lists ten virtues for travelers, of which she highlights "a ready quickness in repartee" as being particularly important when amongst Arabs. Also, "To the Arab, manners are everything; he will forgive any amount of extortion so long as 'your speech is good.'"
Clearly Stark's speech was good as she took extraordinary risks, a white woman alone amongst the beduin, and came through.
Also, her writing is good, which is why she has a lasting legacy as more than just an adventuress, but as a writer too. I liked the classical, Shakespearian and Victorian quotes she used to introduce each chapter or diary entry.
But most of all I like her indomitable spirit, which shined as brightly as the stars in the Arabian night sky.
June 24, 2018
Stark managed to undertake an incredible journey and dictate it so that incredibleness is expressed truly and sincerely, when most people would find it difficult to do either. Her writing sometimes comes off as long-winded, which I was worried about in the opening chapter, but her style very clearly proved itself to me when I found myself enchanted by the landscape of the Hadhramaut, despite it easily being described otherwise as 'a bunch of dusty valleys and knobbly plateaus'.
The core of the book is not about the journey itself - approximately half of it is centered around her stay in Hureidha, and is overwhelmingly focused on her interactions with the people there. Her empathy and ability to appreciate foreign cultures comes through here, and she records dozens of incidents filled with humour, tragedy and some with violence. While patient and generous, she is savvy enough to be able to negotiate - and to say no - to excessive requests, even when in the middle of nowhere.
Most interesting to me was the rhythm of wistfulness that came up as an undercurrent throughout. In the plateau of British imperialism, she finds herself enthralled by the culture of the people (mostly destitute) throughout the Hadhramaut, and expresses her worry that the inevitable influence of colonialism will be to strip these people of their sincerity, generosity and wit, and replace it with greed.
It's a good book, well written and highly sincere.
The core of the book is not about the journey itself - approximately half of it is centered around her stay in Hureidha, and is overwhelmingly focused on her interactions with the people there. Her empathy and ability to appreciate foreign cultures comes through here, and she records dozens of incidents filled with humour, tragedy and some with violence. While patient and generous, she is savvy enough to be able to negotiate - and to say no - to excessive requests, even when in the middle of nowhere.
Most interesting to me was the rhythm of wistfulness that came up as an undercurrent throughout. In the plateau of British imperialism, she finds herself enthralled by the culture of the people (mostly destitute) throughout the Hadhramaut, and expresses her worry that the inevitable influence of colonialism will be to strip these people of their sincerity, generosity and wit, and replace it with greed.
It's a good book, well written and highly sincere.
February 6, 2016
Because I so enjoyed Alice Steinbach's memoir "Without Reservations" with its many quotes by Freya Stark, I put in a request at the local library for one of Stark's books and got "A Winter in Arabia". I found it slow going...took me much longer than usual to finish. It was difficult to follow her travels in what is now Yeman even with a detailed map from Google so most of the time I had no idea where she was. I couldn't imagine that a woman travelling with 2 other women in that country in 1937-38 could have as much freedom as they did; that they weren't either robbed or molested. Especially Stark who traveled alone among the bedouin people with a shifty bodyguard and a small group of camel drivers through such dangerous areas. She was one brave woman; she was sick in bed most of the time in Yeman; she died in France at the age of 100. An amazing lady, historian, author of 20 books, geographer and archaeologist. I now would like to read "Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark" if I can find it.
January 29, 2023
She had me at the first paragraph with her description of flying "in a cool air filled with early sunlight, a honey light over the sandy shore." Her precise, sharp descriptions were one of the joys of the book. There are quite a few sublime moments here. It's a book about the realities of travel, though. Lots of thwartings and tensions and illnesses. Stark writes up a thought-provoking list of characteristics a traveler needs to get through and another one of the reason to travel. I wish I had taken better notes so I could put it here.
The Tauris Park edition is beautiful with a lovely cover and typography.
The Tauris Park edition is beautiful with a lovely cover and typography.
May 27, 2016
I had never heard of Freya Stark until I read Jessa Crispin's excellent article "How Not to be Elizabeth Gilbert" - https://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/....
Stand down, Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed. You have nothing on the writing and the travels of Freya Stark. Unlike the former ladies whose books make me feel like I've been staring at their navels for far too many pages, by the end of Stark's book, I felt like I had been right beside her throughout her entire trip through what is today Yemen but in 1937 was a protectorate of Britain.
Stark certainly shares her own experiences on her travels, but it's all through the lens of seeking to describe vividly her daily experiences living in a small isolated village in southern Arabia. Stark paints her surroundings and the people that she meets there wonderfully without judgment nor idealization. She has a wit that serves her well as a solo female traveler who must walk a very fine line between cultures, genders, religions and nations. I admire her ability to maintain a position of foreigner yet friend, outsider yet with insight and appreciation of the cultures that she interacts with.
Stark tends to downplay every risk and danger, but it is quite awe-inspiring that she traveled as she did during that time through the towns where she did where often no Europeans had ever been seen before and were quite often not at all welcome.
I'll end with this quote which I thought encapsulated quite well her perspective on travel: "The perpetual charm of Arabia is that the traveller finds his level there simply as a human being: the people's directness, deadly to the sentimental or pedantic, likes the less complicated virtues; and the pleasantness of being like for oneself might, I think, be added to the five reasons for travel given me by Sayyid Abdulla, the watch-maker: 'to leave one's troubles behind one; the earn a living; to acquire learning; to practise good manners; and to meet honourable men." (p. 149-150)
Stand down, Elizabeth Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed. You have nothing on the writing and the travels of Freya Stark. Unlike the former ladies whose books make me feel like I've been staring at their navels for far too many pages, by the end of Stark's book, I felt like I had been right beside her throughout her entire trip through what is today Yemen but in 1937 was a protectorate of Britain.
Stark certainly shares her own experiences on her travels, but it's all through the lens of seeking to describe vividly her daily experiences living in a small isolated village in southern Arabia. Stark paints her surroundings and the people that she meets there wonderfully without judgment nor idealization. She has a wit that serves her well as a solo female traveler who must walk a very fine line between cultures, genders, religions and nations. I admire her ability to maintain a position of foreigner yet friend, outsider yet with insight and appreciation of the cultures that she interacts with.
Stark tends to downplay every risk and danger, but it is quite awe-inspiring that she traveled as she did during that time through the towns where she did where often no Europeans had ever been seen before and were quite often not at all welcome.
I'll end with this quote which I thought encapsulated quite well her perspective on travel: "The perpetual charm of Arabia is that the traveller finds his level there simply as a human being: the people's directness, deadly to the sentimental or pedantic, likes the less complicated virtues; and the pleasantness of being like for oneself might, I think, be added to the five reasons for travel given me by Sayyid Abdulla, the watch-maker: 'to leave one's troubles behind one; the earn a living; to acquire learning; to practise good manners; and to meet honourable men." (p. 149-150)
March 30, 2014
excerpt:
When we came home I pressed a few plants I had collected and asked Husain, still ecstatic from his ride, to put a heavy box on to the books with which I covered them.
"That is impossible," said he.
I thought he meant it was too heavy, and said: "Nonsense,"
"But," said Husain, "one should not put anything on top of a book. The word of God may be inside."
I'm having difficulty choosing between 3 and 4 stars. Freya Stark wrote this memoir about the time she spent in Yemen in 1937 and 1938. The reading is a little slow going only because there are phrases that aren't relevant in these modern times, but that is expected when you're reading something that was written almost a century ago.
I enjoy how Freya loves the Arabic people and it is refreshing to read a book from that time written by someone who has respect for the people of the land they are visiting. She writes well but is often in bed with sciatica or fever or some other malaise.
Anyone who enjoys a little history and Middle Eastern culture will appreciate Freya's descriptions of the culture and her experiences. But, the book is a bit dull and I had difficulty finishing it.
When we came home I pressed a few plants I had collected and asked Husain, still ecstatic from his ride, to put a heavy box on to the books with which I covered them.
"That is impossible," said he.
I thought he meant it was too heavy, and said: "Nonsense,"
"But," said Husain, "one should not put anything on top of a book. The word of God may be inside."
I'm having difficulty choosing between 3 and 4 stars. Freya Stark wrote this memoir about the time she spent in Yemen in 1937 and 1938. The reading is a little slow going only because there are phrases that aren't relevant in these modern times, but that is expected when you're reading something that was written almost a century ago.
I enjoy how Freya loves the Arabic people and it is refreshing to read a book from that time written by someone who has respect for the people of the land they are visiting. She writes well but is often in bed with sciatica or fever or some other malaise.
Anyone who enjoys a little history and Middle Eastern culture will appreciate Freya's descriptions of the culture and her experiences. But, the book is a bit dull and I had difficulty finishing it.
September 29, 2019
After Isabella Bird, Freya Stark was a breath of fresh air. She travelled to the Arabian peninsula in the 1930s as part of a team of archæologists under the auspices of the Royal Geographic Society to explore and document preIslamic ruins. She clearly loves everything about the place; the people, the food, the scenery. Things that would have driven me nuts-- people constantly asking her for money or trying to sell her useless junk, for example, she merely brushes off with a good natured quip. Strangely, the book has nary a mention of the Second World War, witch must have been on its brink back home. On many occasions, she is the sole woman in a large party of men. Yet she is always comfortable and trusting, displaying no apprehension. And indeed, she reports no incidents where her sex jeopardized her safety. She is clever and quick witted. She also keeps a positive attitude, even when a bronchial infection keeps her in bed for a good chunk of the book. An interesting read.
3-read-nonfiction
March 20, 2017I greatly admire Freya Stark's travels and life - gutsy, smart, and inspired. From her own point of view, hers was a richly and brilliantly lived life - and that's not easy to do, particularly for a woman in the early 1900's. You go girl! I'm not sure it matters whether she was also a good writer.
But she wasn't. I got so bored with the book I put it down and didn't finish it, which is unusual for me and unfortunate since I find both Freya and the Middle East fascinating. I'm thinking to go back and study some pages just to understand, as a writer myself, why her style failed. Please Muses, save me from ever writing sentences that say so much and mean so little.
But she wasn't. I got so bored with the book I put it down and didn't finish it, which is unusual for me and unfortunate since I find both Freya and the Middle East fascinating. I'm thinking to go back and study some pages just to understand, as a writer myself, why her style failed. Please Muses, save me from ever writing sentences that say so much and mean so little.
January 15, 2018
Besides having an awesome name, Freya Stark was quite an interesting explorer and travel writer. She travelled around the Middle Eastern countries alone (shockingly, for her times) in the 1930s and 1940s. She was a British woman, raised in Italy, and with an interest in archaeology and languages. In her travels, she easily won over local people by impressing them with her knowledge of their languages. Her writing is fantastic, when describing both the landscapes and the people. If you have any interest in travel writing, the Middle East, or just great writing, you should check out Freya Stark.
January 22, 2017
Hmm... Well I am enjoying, however, I thought it would be different. There are times it's hard to read: sometimes I don't understand what the diary entry is about, the culture words and names, and its because part of it is in a diary form - it doesn't roll like a story. When I do understand what the diary entry is about I love learning about how the people of the area live, their culture. Usually, I don't care for a lot of description, however, in this book it's appreciated. I recommend this book to those who might already have some knowledge of the area.
September 8, 2011
Read this book as the State Department recommended it for folks heading to Yemen. Despite reading every word on all 200+ pages, I barely remember a think about this collection of diary entries except that she and her archeologist friend got sick a lot and that Stark appreciated the Yemeni landscapes. Big snooze...
January 7, 2015
I'm thinking this is more my failure than the author's. I grew quickly bored of this and just DNF... partly I am not outdoorsy, partly the idea of Yemen feels dull because it's mostly, well, outdoorsy. At least back then. as a picture book, it probably would have been fabulous. Scenic as all get out. But the idea of roughing it through the scenery... DNF. Call me shallow.
March 28, 2019
Interesting. Gives one an insight into the way the British saw the 'uncivilized world'. It also sheds light on the region one Century ago. Some how, I can't get myself to keep on reading it, even though I've started doing that more that a year ago.
The book seems to fit more into the history category rather than a strictly travel book.
The book seems to fit more into the history category rather than a strictly travel book.
May 19, 2012
20 May 2010 - very descriptive, but a little hard to follow where she was going, and some of her terms were unfamiliar. A good glossary would have been helpful. Still it was an interesting snapshot of a moment in time.
May 9, 2015
Astonishing story and very well-written. Obviously like Thesinger the works she described has now disappeared under mountains of concrete and luxury resorts, so this is a historical gem. Unavoidably blue-stocking but fun all the same.
November 23, 2009
I loved this book. Stark understoond the idea of learning what is important to native people and acting accordingly!
November 9, 2010
Sorry, I relly enjoyed as much as I read but towards the end I was almost seasick from all the wadis.
February 10, 2013
Profound sections mixed with slow moving parts. Not her best work, but excellent overall.
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.
Read
October 5, 2013its gud.
May 16, 2014
She writes as though her travels and time Yemen were ordinary, even though they were quite extraordinary for the time.
December 2, 2016
Freya Stark easily became my favorite travel writer.
August 1, 2017
Freya Stark sounds more intriguing than her writing. In the 30s and 40s , she was one of the first travel writers. That being said her writing is devoid of feeling, dull and boring.
January 1, 2018
An interesting concept but a verbose execution.
August 16, 2023
Winter in Arabia describes in very humanizing detail Stark's 1937-38 expedition to what is now Yemen. She traveled with a female archeologist and another woman. Stark’s attitude towards the locals is enlightened for the time:
"We are in a proud country still new to Europeans, the first foreigners to live in its outlying districts for any length of time; and the hope that I cherish is that we may leave it uncorrupted, its charm of independence intact. I think there is no way to do this and to keep alive the Arab’s happiness in his won virtues except to live his life in certain measure. One may differ in material ways; one may sit on chairs and use forks and gramophones; but on no account dare one put before these people, so easily beguiled, a set of values different from their own. Discontent with their standards is the first step in the degradation of the East."
And she does live their life, as reflected in this passage about two of her hosts, and a situation in which jewelry has disappeared:
"[The presumed thief] appeared, dressed for the feast, with finger-joints and palms yellow with henna and festal ringlets round her wizened old face…. She had taken no rings, she said.
‘Well, then,’ said Qasim, ‘you will have to drink the talisman that the sayyid has prepared for you, and if you are speaking the truth nothing will happen, but if you took the rings you will swell out like this’—he made a balloon-like gesture in front of his own slim tummy.
The floodgates of eloquence were now loosened. She stood with upraised hands, her rust-coloured dress and blue cloak draped about her like some Mater Dolorosa of a rather florid period, her voice rising in squeaks equally inspired by injured innocence and the prospect of drinking the sayyid’s charm.
‘It can’t do you any harm,’ I said at last. ‘It is words of the Quran, and they only harm the wicked. I will drink too, so that you may not fear.’"
Stark’s writing has much the tone of her contemporary Graham Greene in his travel writings, much of it obviously taken from diary. But her descriptions are more vivid. And she went everywhere the bravest Western men went, and beyond, into the world of women, so closed to these male explorers.
"We are in a proud country still new to Europeans, the first foreigners to live in its outlying districts for any length of time; and the hope that I cherish is that we may leave it uncorrupted, its charm of independence intact. I think there is no way to do this and to keep alive the Arab’s happiness in his won virtues except to live his life in certain measure. One may differ in material ways; one may sit on chairs and use forks and gramophones; but on no account dare one put before these people, so easily beguiled, a set of values different from their own. Discontent with their standards is the first step in the degradation of the East."
And she does live their life, as reflected in this passage about two of her hosts, and a situation in which jewelry has disappeared:
"[The presumed thief] appeared, dressed for the feast, with finger-joints and palms yellow with henna and festal ringlets round her wizened old face…. She had taken no rings, she said.
‘Well, then,’ said Qasim, ‘you will have to drink the talisman that the sayyid has prepared for you, and if you are speaking the truth nothing will happen, but if you took the rings you will swell out like this’—he made a balloon-like gesture in front of his own slim tummy.
The floodgates of eloquence were now loosened. She stood with upraised hands, her rust-coloured dress and blue cloak draped about her like some Mater Dolorosa of a rather florid period, her voice rising in squeaks equally inspired by injured innocence and the prospect of drinking the sayyid’s charm.
‘It can’t do you any harm,’ I said at last. ‘It is words of the Quran, and they only harm the wicked. I will drink too, so that you may not fear.’"
Stark’s writing has much the tone of her contemporary Graham Greene in his travel writings, much of it obviously taken from diary. But her descriptions are more vivid. And she went everywhere the bravest Western men went, and beyond, into the world of women, so closed to these male explorers.
December 17, 2021
One can only admire the courage of Freya Starke who in her pursuit to acquire more knowledge braved a harsh, hostile world. One in which she as a woman and an "unbeliever" start off on the backfoot. In her own words: "Here on my bed, wondering why I come to these disastrous lands when I have a comfortable home of my own, I can find no better answer than that old one. I reached the East with the mere wish to know more about the world we live in." It says a lot for her personality and her attitude, that she managed to establish relationships that allowed her to conclude her travels and research here virtually unharmed.
Freya Starke also expressed the wish that she might contribute "some small arch to the bridge of understanding between East and West", a difficult undertaking by her own acknowledgment. Well, we are still busy constructing and strengthening that bridge today, and it remains as fragile as ever, but that she contributed to it should not be in doubt.
My best passage: "For how much longer will you study?" I asked him.
"I do not know. Perhaps always," he said. "Learning is like water to the earth. There is never enough."
Freya Starke also expressed the wish that she might contribute "some small arch to the bridge of understanding between East and West", a difficult undertaking by her own acknowledgment. Well, we are still busy constructing and strengthening that bridge today, and it remains as fragile as ever, but that she contributed to it should not be in doubt.
My best passage: "For how much longer will you study?" I asked him.
"I do not know. Perhaps always," he said. "Learning is like water to the earth. There is never enough."
January 8, 2026
I really wanted to enjoy this, but unfortunately found it very hard work. Freya Stark obviously understood Arabic, but her engagement with “the natives” in this book had her coming across as superior and dismissive of everyone else. Her casual disdain for those she’s engaging with is uncomfortable - she repeatedly complained about things such as riding a donkey in the desert and in the same paragraph refers to a Bedouin guide whose feet are literally bleeding without any apparent concern for his wellbeing.
Stark also comes across as deeply pretentious. She inserts quotes and poetry throughout the book, often in Latin and French. There’s an agonising section where she keeps a diary for what feels like an interminable time, complaining about her health and noting how much everyone she meets apparently loves her. As a result, when she finally gets moving across the desert, she seems to have used all her words up and only briefly describes the actual interesting element of her journey.
Stark also comes across as deeply pretentious. She inserts quotes and poetry throughout the book, often in Latin and French. There’s an agonising section where she keeps a diary for what feels like an interminable time, complaining about her health and noting how much everyone she meets apparently loves her. As a result, when she finally gets moving across the desert, she seems to have used all her words up and only briefly describes the actual interesting element of her journey.
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