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The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia
Harper
November 2010
On Sale: November 16, 2010
768 pages
ISBN: 0061712612
EAN: 9780061712616
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
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.
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