Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28366 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review

related to Lord Byron. He attended Eton and Merton College, Oxford, and wrote several travel books before his untimely death in 1941, while serving as a correspondenBook Review

About the Author

Robert Byron was born in England in 1905 into a family distantly related to Lord Byron. He attended Eton and Merton College, Oxford, and wrote several travel books before his untimely death in 1941, while serving as a correspondent for a London newspaper during World War II.

Customer Reviews

"Oxiana" a trip worth taking
I have read about how great "Oxiana" is for a long time, so finally reading it is like arriving at a new place after a long journey. The author, who spends most of the book trying to cross Iran in order to get to Afghanistan, makes that country very interesting, especially now 70 years later it is back in the headlines. He intermixes his story with what he has read about "Oxiana." In particular, the ancient civilization in Afghanistan is represented by tombs that are built like towers with a crypt at the top. It is like nothing else I have ever heard of, and I've been reading about Afghanistan for about six years now. Obviously, the trip was very difficult, but the author lets the facts speak for themselves, and always keeps in front of himself and us the glories of a lost world. One of his most interesting stories is of a queen, who seems to have been the Elinor of Aquitaine for the Afghans.

A classic of travel writing
Please look past the one-star review of the previous reviewer...check out other editions of the book and you'll get a truer picture. Byron was notoriously opinionated but that is what makes the book. If you have delicate sensibilities, you may want to skip this. Byron wasn't comprehensive so you are reading literature here, not a complete guidebook. His strengths were a love of architecture and hatred of hypocrisy.

This edition has the added bonus of a Preface by Rory Stewart, recent author of THE PLACES IN BETWEEN and THE PRINCE OF THE MARSHES, about Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.

My only quibble with this edition is with the photographs. They are printed on the same paper stock as the text. The publisher can do better than this with a classic.

Finish this book and win the Nobel prize for persistence
In the early to mid 1930s, Robert Byron traveled to Venice, Beirut, Palestine and finally to Iran and Afghanistan for 10 months with his companion, Christopher Sykes. Oxiana is an area in Afghanistan south of the Russian border around the Oxus river which is now called Amu Darya.

Byron's "The Road to Oxiana" became the magnificently boring and superficial account of his trip, devoid of any emotion, attachment to anything or anyone, including his travel companion whom he rarely mentioned in the book, full of English arrogance and racist remarks about Jews, Persians, Afghans and blacks. Here's what he had to say about Jews he saw at a port in Jerusalem: "Physically, Jews can look the best or the worst bred people in the world. These were the worst. They stank, stared, shoved, and shrieked." He also continuously referred to blacks as negros, but I suppose that was the English norm at the time, so he was generationally prejudiced. Ironically, Byron fiercely denounced Nazi sympathizers following his trip to Nuremberg, but he was still well known for his anti-semitic remarks.

The Road to Oxiana was Byron's second and final attempt at gaining recognition for this trip. His and Sykes' original work on the diary titled "Innocense and Design" in a comic novel format was largely unsuccessful.

If you're a fan of literature with big words and metaphors, you may enjoy this book which was by no means an easy read. I suppose Byron had a knack for describing architecture, and Oxiana changed the genre of travel writing since its publication. For me, it changed nothing as Byron lacked the connection to people and places to engage the readers. His account of interactions with the locals were brief and lacked depth.