Literary Crushes
Day 4. I’ll be posting one a day for the next ten days–a list of my top ten completely platonic and not in any way obsessive literary crushes. Here follow my all-time favorite cerebral, brooding, and sometimes tragic heroes in my very favorite books about them.
Col. T. E. Lawrence. With Lawrence in Arabia by Lowell Thomas. As the only book on this list that I haven’t read twice, Thomas’s biography of Lawrence was the direct inspiration for the film of the similar name. A far different portrayal of the revolt in the desert than Lawrence’s autobiography, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Thomas’s version paints Lawrence as a modern-day knight, leading his band of loyal, if sometimes recalcitrant, Bedouin soldiers into danger and intrigue for the sake of freedom. That both British and the Arabs failed to share his vision gives Lawrence’s efforts toward an independent Arab nation more pathos but no less heroism.
Key points: desert, espionage, sociology, cerebral, swashbuckling, war
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