Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia - Hardcover

Korda, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061712612 ISBN 13: 9780061712616

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2010

Synopsis

From Michael Korda, author of the New York Times bestselling Eisenhower biography Ike and the captivating Battle of Britain book With Wings Like Eagles, comes the critically-acclaimed definitive biography of T. E. Lawrence—the legendary British soldier, strategist, scholar, and adventurer whose exploits as “Lawrence of Arabia” created a legacy of mythic proportions in his own lifetime. Many know T.E. Lawrence from David Lean’s Oscar-winning 1962 biopic—based, itself, upon Lawrence’s autobiographical Seven Pillars of Wisdom—but in the tradition of modern biographers like John Meacham, David McCullough, and Barbara Leaming, Michael Korda’s penetrating new examination reveals new depth and character in the twentieth century’s quintessential English hero.

About this title

Review:

"Korda...has redrawn the map, and reinvented T.E. Lawrence, coming closest to giving this elusive holograph in a white "dishdasha" a pulse."--Daily Beast

"Korda's biography of Lawrence's life and legend conjure up a pathos and a very human side to the mystique of Lawrence of Arabia."--New York Journal of Books

"In "Hero", Korda presents Lawrence's life in minute, fascinating detail. . . . Korda's extensive research and straightforward writing make this a valuable addition to the Lawrence library, a one-stop resource for all who are interested in this hero."--"Dallas News"

"Korda persuasively argues that had Lawrence's vision for a Mideast peace prevailed after the war...that deeply troubled part of the world might be a far more peaceful, prosperous region than it is today."--Associated Press

"Few come closer to appraising the man in all his protean grandeur, and essential mystery, than Michael Korda. . . . One of the most compelling books I have read in a long time."--Sir Alistair Horne, CBE, author of A Savage War of Peace

""Hero" is a full-scale, major event, [and] a great biography. . . . The triumph of the book is Michael Korda's brilliant, always balanced portrait of the infinitely fascinating Lawrence of Arabia, the relevance of which, now in our time, is of greater importance than ever."--David McCullough

"Lawrence of Arabia, one of the great heroes of any age, has found the right biographer in Michael Korda--a keen judge of the human condition and a master story teller who can separate myth from reality without diminishing the grandeur of his subject."--Evan Thomas, author of The War Lovers

"Hero is a portrait of Lawrence in all his complexity that is worth its 700-plus pages."--BookPage

"T.E. Lawrence is next to impossible to fix on the page. Yet Michael Korda has done so, delivering up a crowded, improbable life in a page-turning biography, every bit as rich as its protean subject. A splendid read."--Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life

"A splendid biography about a most unusual and extraordinary individual."--Hugh Thomas, author of The Spanish Civil War

From the Back Cover:

Michael Korda's Hero is the story of an epic life on a grand scale: a revealing, in-depth, and gripping biography of the extraordinary, mysterious, and dynamic Englishman whose daring exploits and romantic profile—including his blond, sun-burnished good looks and flowing white robes—made him an object of intense fascination, still famous the world over as "Lawrence of Arabia."

An Oxford scholar and archaeologist, one of five illegitimate sons of a British aristocrat who ran away with his daughters' governess, Lawrence was sent to Cairo as a young intelligence officer in 1916. He vanished into the desert in 1917 only to emerge later as one of the greatest—and certainly most colorful—figures of World War One. Though a foreigner, he played a leading and courageous part in uniting the Arab tribes to defeat the Turks, and eventually capture Damascus, transforming himself into a world-famous hero, hailed as "the Uncrowned King of Arabia."

In illuminating Lawrence's achievements, Korda digs further than anyone before him to expose the flesh-and-blood man and his contradictory nature. Here was a born leader who was utterly fearless and seemingly impervious to pain, thirst, fatigue, and danger, yet who remained shy, sensitive, mod-est, and retiring; a hero who turned down every honor and decoration offered to him, and was racked by moral guilt and doubt; a scholar and an aesthete who was also a bold and ruthless warrior; a writer of genius—the author of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, one of the greatest books ever written about war—who was the virtual inventor of modern insurgency and guerrilla warfare; a man who at the same time sought and fled the limelight, and who found in friendships, with everyone from Winston Churchill to George Bernard and Charlotte Shaw, from Nancy Astor to Noël Coward, a substitute for sexual feelings that he rigorously—even brutally and systematically—repressed in himself.

As Korda shows in his brilliantly readable and formidably authoritative biography, Lawrence was not only a man of his times; he was a visionary whose accomplishments—farsighted diplomat and kingmaker, military strategist of genius, perhaps the first modern "media celebrity" (and one of the first victims of it), and an acclaimed writer—transcended his era.

Korda examines Lawrence's vision for the modern Middle East—plans that, had they been carried through, might have prevented the hatred and bloodshed that have become ubiquitous in the region. Ultimately, as this magisterial work demonstrates, Lawrence remains one of the most unique and fascinating figures of modern times, the arch-hero whose life is at once a triumph and a sacrifice and whose capacity to astonish still remains undimmed.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0061712612
• ISBN 13: 9780061712616
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 784