It is his descriptions of the Bedouin or the Bedu, as they were called before Westernization mangled their name, that most interested me. Lawrence switches from describing meal time in the Bedouin tent, reflecting on the beauty of the desert, discussing military tactics and recounting being tortured by Turkish soldiers almost equal flair. Reading it actually felt like riding a camel into war: ponderously slow at times, swaying you back and forth before it suddenly pitches you violently from the saddle and into the midst of a fire fight. Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a truly remarkable book that seems to encapsulate Lawrence’s very soul. I’m sure many are curious about what Lawrence’s original book would have been like, but personally I think it’s unlikely it could have ever equaled the war memoirs. When the work began his work was still incomplete and was later lost, later though in Jordan he came across a seven pillared rock formation and used this name again to describe his memoirs of the war. Lawrenceīefore the outbreak of WW1 Thomas Edward Lawrence had begun work on a scholarly work about seven great cities in the Middle East and had taken his title from Proverbs 9:1 (Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars).
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