The Road to Oxiana - Softcover

Byron, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195325605 ISBN 13: 9780195325607

Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A., 2007

Synopsis

In 1933, the delightfully eccentric travel writer Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana, near the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Throughout, he kept a thoroughly captivating record of his encounters, discoveries, and frequent misadventures. His story would become a best-selling travel book throughout the English-speaking world, until the acclaim died down and it was gradually forgotten. When Paul Fussell published his own book Abroad, in 1982, he wrote that The Road to Oxiana is to the travel book what "Ulysses is to the novel between the wars, and what The Waste Land is to poetry." His statements revived the public's interest in the book, and for the first time, it was widely available in American bookstores. Now this long-overdue reprint will introduce it to a whole new generation of readers. This edition features a new introduction by Rory Stewart, best known for his book The Places In Between, about his extensive travels in Afghanistan.
Today, 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 travelers, and a nostalgic look back at a more innocent time.

About this title

Review:

Certainly the wittiest book, and perhaps the wisest, to have been written in English about Iran. (Christopher de Robert Byron was born in England in 1905 into a family distantly)

Book Description:

'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

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, U.S.A.
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0195325605
• ISBN 13: 9780195325607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 291