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    Seven Pillars of Wisdom
    Seven Pillars of Wisdom
    Seven Pillars of Wisdom
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom

    Written by T. E. Lawrence

    Narrated by Jim Norton

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    About this audiobook

    Although Lawrence of Arabia died in 1935, the story of his life has captured the imagination of succeeding generations. The Seven Pillars of Wisdom is a monumental work in which he chronicles his role in leading the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War. A reluctant leader, and wracked by guilt at the duplicity of the British, Lawrence nevertheless threw himself into his role, suffering the blistering desert conditions and masterminding military campaigns which culminated in the triumphant march of the Arabs into Damascus.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateAug 18, 1994
    ISBN9789629547295
    Author

    T. E. Lawrence

    T.E. Lawrence, popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia, lived from 1888 to 1935. He was a British military officer and diplomat, acting as a crucial liaison with Arab forces during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire from 1916 to 1918. The basis for the 1962 movie Lawrence of Arabia, his best known book is Seven Pillars of Wisdom, describing Lawrence’s experiences during the revolt, while 27 Articles summarizes his techniques and tactics.

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    Reviews for Seven Pillars of Wisdom

    4/5

    51 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Difficult book to read through entirely; largely covers the history of the Arab participation and the outcomes of World War 1. My 1935 copy, a gift in 1936 to my father, was an abridged history (Lawrence lost the original manuscript and had destroyed his original notes by then). The insights from a different era are interesting, especially in light of the later formation of Israel and the modernization of the original Palestine.
    • 4/5
      Big, sprawling, and better than you'd think. I'm not a history buff and never will be, but this book is interesting, probably due to T.E. Lawrence's very quirky personality.
    • 5/5
      This is a tough read but one of the most interesting books on the Middle East you will ever read. This is the book that the movie, Lawrence of Arabia, was based on. What is interesting is, like the the book Europes Last Summer, it gives you a very different look at the causes for some of todays biggest issues, including the current war in Iraq. T.E.Lawrence was a genius and a leader. He got it rigth, but was put down by the higher echalon in power at the time. He was prophetic and predicted the problems we now have back in 1926. To understand why we have problems in the Middle East, you have to read this book.
    • 2/5
      Unnuanced generalizations about nations, peoples, etc. Not engaging.
    • 4/5
      An excellent account of Lawrences years in Arabia. Well written and full of insights. Many of the politically incorrect type.
    • 2/5
      I know this is a classic and ever since in 1945 I learned it was a best seller in 1935 I have sort of wanted to read it. I came across a copy recently and decided I would never read it unlessI simply set out to do so. I found it drudgery often, detailing the events in the war against Turkey in 1917 and 1918 in so much detail that it made me wish that the end of the book would come--but it went on for over 600 pages. True, there are interesting and exciting episodes but the detail is often similar and seldom is there a date used--not even a year very often. So one does not know how close to the end the story is. I had hoped he would tell about his time at the Versailles peace conference but he does not. I would estimate the interesting pages in this 600 page book amount to about 75 pages.
    • 4/5
      A monumental book. Recounts in extensive detail the Arab revolt against the Ottomans during WW1 and how the British Army's Arabists played their parts. Lawrence's account has its great moments of prose.
    • 4/5
      Not an easy book to sum up in a paragraph or two: in many ways it's a big, shaggy mess, at times tediously self-centred and self-important, at times captivating and beautiful. You can put up with his endless agonising about his role in history and his "betrayal" of the Arabs, his sweeping generalisations about other people, his half-baked theories of this and that, his detached and callous descriptions of death and destruction; because there is nothing like the experience of riding across the desert with Lawrence. When he is talking about landscape, camels, tracks and wells, all the bloat and solipsism drops away, and his prose is perfectly fitted to what he is describing. Reading his descriptions of his journeys perversely gives a more intense visual experience than even the most technicoloured cinemascope version could hope to.
    • 5/5
      A riveting ride through the desert with this man and his cohorts as they battle the Turks. From a small beginning they accomplish the seemingly impossible, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
    • 4/5
      This book belongs on the bookshelf of any student of World Politics and / or Middle East Politics in particular. Despite the passing of the years, little has changed, other than some arbitrary borders being redrawn, in Arab politics since Lawrence's account was first published. The same problems that stymied the British in the early 20th Century are still preventing peace in the region today.An excellent work and an excellent autobiography.
    • 4/5
      I have listened to a few hours of selections read out loud on the Naxos label.

      I admire T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence is a very good writer and communicates well what the fuss was about in Arabia during World War I.
    • 4/5
      Lawrence's towering epic of his campaigns in the Middle East durinf WWI. Brilliant, exhausting, egnimatic, arrogant, maddening but never really boring. I don't think I would have liked Lawrence musch as a person, but his memoir is illuminating to say the least.
    • 5/5
      I selected this book to read as part of the research I was doing on my novel. I had seen the film "Lawrence of Arabia" in the past and now wanted to mine the book for details I needed to know about life among the Bedouin in 1920. I had planned to only read the parts I needed for my novel, but ended up devouring the whole thing. Then I read it again, parsing out what had now become an intense interest in TE's psychology. I then retreated to a biography and selected John Mack's "A Prince of our Disorder", not only because it won a Pulitzer, but because it was a psychological biography rather than the more materialistic ones that focused on TE's war efforts. (I do not care how Lawrence learned to blow up a train). As Lawrence's personality was dissected in that fabulous biography, I could not help but draw on a curious aspect of human-ness. There is a correlation between being deeply psychologically disturbed and fantastic achievements in some of history's greatest artists. Van Gogh, is the first who comes to mind, but Beethoven and Mozart and Wagner all had personality problems (I am being polite here), Degas, Cezanne, Gauguin: not particularly well-balanced. There are any number of examples, too many to discuss here. The opposite is true as well, as other men who are infamous rather than famous, and their achievements might be better categorized as harmful to humanity rather than having enriched it (these men tend to enter politics rather than the arts). But the point I am making is that in order to step out of the ordinary, the mold has to be broken, and cracking that mold often corresponds to a cracking the psyche. Reading Seven Pillars again after reading Mack's biography underlined the most poignant parts of the book, and watching the film again after being immersed in the two books brought out the fierce intent of the filmmakers to illustrate in sound and color what Lawrence meant to other people and to history, but not what that medium could convey to us what was churning in Lawrence's soul. They tried, they tried, and Peter O'Toole does a fantastic job looking like a tormented soul, his eyes at times full of humor and then pathos and then fear. But the screenplay cannot put the words in our ears that we need to hear in order to understand Lawrence. Only his own words can do that, and they are heartbreaking.
    • 4/5
      In bare terms, this is an autobiographical account of a British liaison officer and his adventures leading an Arab rebellion against the Turks. But there is much more than that. An account by a philosopher-traveler-soldier about war and adventure and heroism and all that.

      It is a product of his time. And Lawrence does seem a bit patronizing about the Arabs and Turks. But in other times, he is astonishingly sensitive and well-attuned and insightful to their needs. How else could he have helped led a successful guerrilla campaign?

      A book which still shines and has much to teach. If only he was in charge of the post-war partitioning of the world.
    • 5/5
      Brilliant. I've had a hopeless crush on Lawrence since I saw Lawrence of Arabia, but once I grew up I realized that, as dashing as Peter O'Toole is, the real T.E. is even better. His writing is amazingly descriptive and I found myself tearing up a little several times.
    • 5/5
      T. E. Lawrence's masterpiece was published in 1926 even though he wrote most of it about 1919 following his return from the desert. Reading this classic account of Lawrence's exploits is both exhilarating and informative. I am impressed by his depiction of Arab culture of the time and its seeming connection with past and present. The importance of tales told around the hearth as the heart of Arab culture seems to be similar to the culture encountered by Muhammad as he was growing up centuries earlier. Further, Lawrence's keen ability to describe his surroundings and bring the events, of which he was often the center, alive is shown in almost every chapter. The portraits of the Arab leaders from Abdulla and Auda to Feisel are fascinating in their detail and psychological insight. Lawrence, it seems, was born for this journey and fated to share it with us. T. E. Lawrence acted upon his dream 'with open eyes' and made it happen. In a book filled with deception he gives us a view into the world before the end of World War I changed everything. We see the various Arab factions and the deals made with the British. More importantly we are given insight into the men through Lawrence's eyes, his acute judgement, and his poetic narrative. He notes the keys to the Arab Revolt in the common language they shared and their heritage of the greatness that existed under the Caliphs going back to the six centuries following the death of Muhammad. We share in his pangs of conscience and his judgements of others and his own life and actions. He notes that "feeling and illusion were at war within me" and it reminds me of the birth of modernity with Faustian man. Also important are his comments on the British in the Middle East and the nature of the soldier in war. Ultimately I was moved and found support for my own subjunctive mood in this inspirational book.
    • 4/5
      Finally, finally got around to reading this book. I wanted to ever since I first saw the film almost 20 years ago. It is a remarkable story told in much detail - and in very beautiful language. I'm not much interested in the strategic details, but I found Lawrence's descriptions of his own thought processes and his personal journal enlightening and somewhat inspiring.
    • 4/5
      The strength of this book is in the writing itself. If you have ever read "Sagittarius Rising" by Cecil Lewis you may agree with me. Tedious? At times. Egotistical? Who wouldn't have been in that role? Truly a multi-level study of war, Arab culture, geography of the Arabian peninsula, his own homo-eroticism, and his underlying guilt at the British and French betrayal of the Arab people make this a classic that still explains and teaches today. It should be required reading for every President, Secretary of State, and everybody on the Middle East desk in the State Dept.
    • 3/5
      “I loved you, so I drew these tides of
      Men into my hands
      And wrote my will across the
      Sky and stars
      To earn you freedom, the seven
      Pillared worthy house,
      That your eyes might be
      Shining for me
      When we came

      Death seemed my servant on the
      Road, 'til we were near
      And saw you waiting:
      When you smiled and in sorrowful
      Envy he outran me
      And took you apart:
      Into his quietness

      Love, the way-weary, groped to your body,
      Our brief wage
      Ours for the moment
      Before Earth's soft hand explored your shape
      And the blind
      Worms grew fat upon
      Your substance

      Men prayed me that I set our work,
      The inviolate house,
      As a memory of you
      But for fit monument I shattered it,
      Unfinished: and now
      The little things creep out to patch
      Themselves hovels
      In the marred shadow
      Of your gift.”


      This book is the Odyssey of the desert war in world war one. Lawrence of Arabia tells the story of his adventures in his own style and view. Having recently read Lawrence in Arabia (by Scott Anderson) I found some of this dull feeling I had just read this same info.

      However, one of the things Anderson did not capture well in his analysis of Lawrence is his education. Lawrence was not merely an Oxford grad, but a scholar. His word choice and usage shows a high degree of learning and some of phrase turns are excellent. For instance: "The staff knew so much more of war than I did that they refused to learn from me of the strange conditions in which the Arab irregulars had to act; and I could not be bothered to set up a kindergarten of the imagination for their benefit."

      Some self-reflection: "I quickly outgrew ideas. So I distrusted experts, who were often intelligences confined within high walls, knowing indeed every paving-stone of their prison courts: while I might know from what quarry the stones were hewn and what wages the mason earned. I gainsayed them out of carelessness, for I had found materials always apt to serve a purpose, and Will a sure guide to some one of the many roads leading from purpose to achievement."

      While these passages jumped out at me they by no means form the way the whole book reads as he relates his history with the Arabs and the battles of minds, cultures, and war that he helped guide. I wished that he had written about his efforts after the war to divide the Middle East differently but he ends his tale near the end of the desert war and doesn't talk much of his life before the war either. A good read but not one to read to soon after another book about Lawrence's life.

      P.S. The Folio Society printing of this book is very beautiful and includes the parts later redacted or added by Lawrence.
    • 5/5
      Written between 1919 and 1926, this text tells of the campaign aganist the Turks in the Middle East, encompassing gross acts of cruelty and revenge, ending in a welter of stink and corpses in a Damascus hospital.Superb book. Must read.
    • 4/5
      Beyond the insights and history, this book is beautifully written.
    • 4/5
      A good book in its own right, filled with fascinating details, adventure, excitement, and introspection. It details a period in history that helped create the Modern world. for all of that, it is not only one of most successful examples of an autobiography that I have ever read.It's also is one of those books. The books that help shape characters, dialog, and plot in other stories. Like a stone falling in a pond, the effect ripples out. I found myself recognizing so many ideas and concepts.It is a brilliant book and a fascinating read. One word of warning however, a bit like a really large slice of chocolate fudge cake. It is hard to eat in one sitting.
    • 3/5
      Seven Pillars of Wisdom is T.E. Lawrence's account of his actions in leading the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks in WWI. One reviewer called it a "novel traveling under the cover of biography," and I think that's accurate. After a new account of Lawrence's war was popularized this year, I became intrigued and decided to watch the epic Lawrence of Arabia, which I'd never seen before. We watched it a couple weeks ago.

      I thought it would be helpful in understanding some of the formation of Syria and the current tribal fighting from there across the Middle East.

      The movie is essentially a recreation of Lawrence's account. Peter O'Toole not only looks like Lawrence but also does an incredible job portraying Lawrence's obvious discomfort in his own skin, something that often front-and-center in the book. Lawrence admits his own inferiority complex, how much he dislikes himself, and his conflicted emotions leading the Arabs in the pretense of independence knowing full well the Allied powers will never allow it.

      Without more detailed knowledge of the map and the Arab divisions, it is somewhat difficult to follow all of the book; having seen the movie beforehand helped (even with the liberties taken with the timeline). Uncomfortable parts include Lawrence having to kill his own comrades either out of mercy or to prevent a blood feud, and Lawrence being sexually assaulted by a Turkish Major when he was captured (from reading other books on Turkey in WWI, I know sexual abuse of prisoners by the Turks was widespread).

      Lawrence's previous history in Arabia and how he obtained his knowledge of Arabic is left out, Lawrence only mentions it in passing. Unlike the movie, there was much more participation and coordination of the British and Australians with the Arab fighters, Lawrence was not a Lone Ranger out there.

      The book ends with Lawrence being granted leave, and he expresses regret. But regret for what? Taking leave? Regret for his participation in the war? Regret for not staying? It's up to the reader, I suppose. History tells us that Lawrence was mentally and psychologically shaken by his war experience, something very real in the book.

      In all, I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. I look forward to reading a historical documentation of Lawrence's role in WWI.
    • 5/5
      A remarkable story of remarkable people and times. Eloquence, earth and grit.
    • 5/5
      Reportedly Army officers have been watching THE MOVIE for advice on how to make the Arabs win. Boys you may be about 5 years behind the curve here - most of THE BOOK is about how to help the Arabs paralyze their enemies by setting train-side bombs! Which is in the movie, under the guise of "the Arabs are greedy and corrupt." Not too useful as advice at the moment.
    • 4/5
      The book in its depth, scope and subject matter reminds me of A Bright and Shining Lie. As with that book, it suffers from an overload of details that are distracting to someone unfamiliar with the events. I'm sure that to so one more intimately familiar with the historical events of the time the book would be a fascinating and informative read. I though came away with the most from the chapters that stuck with broader historical and political commentary, rather than the specific names of who slept in what tent when, who owned which camel (and said camel's gender) and what ulitmately killed the camel (mange, dehydration, neglect, etc).
    • 3/5
      Classic text on war with the Arabs, originally distributed privately, then publicly available in 1935
    • 5/5
      Literate, extraordinary book.
    • 4/5
      This story was written in Paris, about the Diary of Lawrence of Arabia in terms of places and political that attitudes him.
    • 5/5
      Anyone interested in events in Iraq cannot possibly place them in perspective without reading this book. This book about the Arab Rebellion of 1912 and the roll of Western Society/Democracy could be playing out today. The issues on the ground that face the indigenous people have not changed, only the names have changed. While we are not currently playing out the 19th Century Colonial roll, the local issues are spot on. This book reads like the headlines from the region. History has a way of thumbing its nose at those who ignore it.