Arabia Felix

£11.99
Available to Order
from our supplier 
ISBN
9781681370729
 
A riveting account of a landmark expedition that left only one survivor, now back in print for the first time in decades.

'Arabia Felix' is the spellbinding true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously awry. On a winter morning in 1761 six men leave Copenhagen by sea--a botanist, a philologist, an astronomer, a doctor, an artist, and their manservant--an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first organized foray into a corner of the world unknown to Europeans. The expedition made its way to Turkey and Egypt, by which time its members were already actively seeking to undercut and even kill one another, before disappearing into the harsh desert that was their destination. Nearly seven years later a single survivor returned to Denmark to find himself forgotten and all the specimens that had been sent back ruined by neglect.

Based on diaries, notebooks, and sketches that lay unread in Danish archives until the twentieth century, 'Arabia Felix' is a tale of intellectual rivalry and a comedy of very bad manners, as well as an utterly absorbing adventure.
More Information
Weight 0.410000
Author Hansen, Thorkild
Availability IP
Department Travel Writing
Edition Main
Format Paperback
ISBN 9781681370729
Pages 392
Published 13/06/2017
Publisher New York Review Books
Section Travel Writing: General
Size Unfolded 202x130mm
Write Your Own Review
You're reviewing:Arabia Felix
Copyright © 2024 Edward Stanford Ltd. All rights reserved.