Arabia Felix

Description

Arabia Felix is the spellbinding true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously astray. 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; all in all, an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the first Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first such scientific expedition ever mounted to a corner of the world unknown to Europeans, and a glorious venture, sponsored by the Danish crown, that had excited the curiosity of all Europe. After a slow voyage to Turkey and Egypt, during which the merry band of explorers pass their time by plotting to poison or shoot one another, the small party disappeared into the unknown desert that is their destination, and the exotic, dangerous, and disastrous make private animosity increasingly superfluous. Nearly seven years later, the sole survivor of the expedition finally makes it back to Denmark to find himself a forgotten man and to discover that the precious specimens that the researchers had sent back to Denmark in the course of the expedition have all been ruined by neglect. Based on diaries, notebooks, and sketches that had been stashed away in the Copenhagen museum and unread for years, Arabia Felix is both a dark comedy of very bad manners and an unforgettable tale of high adventure.

Thorkild Hansen (1927-1989), a novelist best known for his Slave Trilogy, was an avid traveller and travel writer. James McFarlane (1920-1999) was a translator and scholar of European literature, who taught at King's College before being apppointed Chair of European Literature at the University of East Anglia. Kathleen McFarlane (1922-2008) was a translator of Norwegian literature and a celebrated weaver. Colin Thubron is the president of the Royal Society of Literature. Among his books are Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet.

"This tale of an 18th century scientific expedition gone awry (first published in Danish in 1962 and back out in a new English edition) is a brutal, beautiful story of human ideals - and all the clever ways we manage to muck them up. Part history, part fiction, part travelogue, this book balances its central tragedy with some winks and smirks. And yes, it's true: Before long, I found those pages practically turned themselves." -Colin Dwyer, NPR Book Concierge, "2017's Great Reads" "First and foremost, Arabia Felix is just a terrific story: riveting, hilarious, exquisitely written and translated. Beyond that, however, it draws a rich and dynamic group portrait of a collection of philosopher-scientist-explorers at the very dawn of the modern era." -Gideon Lewis-Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction "The material that Thorkild Hansen has gathered for this book is as dramatic and colorful as anything....Arabia Felix is a first-class job.... Hansen has rescued from oblivion a fine story of adventure, discovery, death and endurance.... He has written a shrewd study of human character under severe stress." -Orville Prescott, The New York Times "An epic voyage...unflaggingly readable and interesting." -Don Moraes, The Spectator "A blend of historical chronicle and biography...Hansen's absorbing chronicle of this expedition and its complicated background dramas is a splendid narrative told with literary distinction." -Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal "Thorkild Hansen...has written this so well that the reader is caught up in the problems of the expedition and travels with them slowly, sometimes dangerously as well as painfully.... This book reaffirms one's faith in the ability of the human being as an observer with minimum equipment...fascinating to the general reader." -Lorrin Kennamer, Austin American-Statesman "A scholarly and exciting account...an admirable writer, whose narrative energies [are] clear and dynamic...he tells it simply and well. Arabia Felix must appeal to anyone who enjoys reading of adventure and exploration." -Michael Adams, The Guardian