God’s Fugitive [Idioma Inglés] - Hardcover

A new biography of one of the most intrepid, romantic and fascinating of the great nineteenth-century travellers.

Explorer, scholar, travel writer and poet, Charles Doughty was the progenitor of a noble tradition that includes Lawrence of Arabia (to whom he was a mentor) and Wilfred Thesiger: British writers who have been fascinated by the Bedouin, and in particular by that strange, mythic part of the world, the Empty Quarter (a phrase which Doughty introduced to the West).

In the 1870s Doughty spent two years wandering through Arabia, first with the Haj pilgrimage, then joining nomadic bands of Arabs, sometimes staying as a virtual prisoner in far-flung desert towns. Unyielding in his independence of mind, the tall, red-bearded Doughty’s aggressive refusal to conceal his Christianity made his travels all the more dangerous: he was threatened with death several times, spurned, insulted and often beaten by angry mobs.

The story of his archaeological investigations and his wide-ranging observations of Arabia and desert life were published in 1888 as the famous Arabia Deserta, with its haunting opening sentence: ‘A new voice hailed me of an old friend when, first returned from the Peninsula, I paced again in that long street of Damascus which is called straight...’

Feted by the literary establishment, Doughty risked all many times over in his obsessive quests in Arabia. He often seemed possessed by an almost messianic vision of himself, and found among the Bedouin a chivalry and honour that suited his temperament, as it was to do for Thesiger. Often, too, he found himself at odds with the authorities, his work rejected and his genius (as he saw it) neglected. His long, impassioned and often paradoxical life make him one of the great British scholar-eccentrics.

Explorer, scholar, scientist, travel writer and poet, Charles Montagu Doughty was one of the greatest nineteenth-century adventurers, the progenitor of a noble tradition that includes Lawrence of Arabia, to whom he was a mentor, and Wilfred Thesiger: British writers who have been fascinated by the Beduin, and in particular by that strange, mythic part of the world, the Empty Quarter – a phrase which Doughty introduced to the West.

Born in Suffolk in 1843, the son of a clergyman, in the 1870's Doughty spent two years wandering through Arabia, first with the Hadja pilgrimage, then joining nomadic bands of Arabs, sometimes being kept as a virtual prisoner in far-flung desert towns. Unyielding in his independence of mind, the tall, red-bearded Doughty consistently refused to conceal his Christianity, making his perilous travels even more dangerous: he was threatened with death several times, spurned, insulted and often beaten by angry mobs. He risked all many times over, sometimes seeming possessed by an almost messianic vision of himself; yet he was ultimately to find among the Beduin a chivalry and honour that suited his own unbending temperament.

The story of Doughty's obsessive archaeological investigations and wide-ranging observations of Arabia and desert life were published in 1888 as the vast and celebrated 'Travels in Arabia Deserta'. Although the book brought him little in the way of financial reward, he was now feted by the literary establishment; but his abrasiveness and refusal to compromise meant he frequently found himself at odds with the learned societies of England and Europe, his work rejected and his genius (as he saw it) neglected.

Doughty was far more than an eccentric traveller and adventurer. He was dedicated to his great mission of rescuing the English language from the decadence into which he believed it had fallen since the eras of Chaucer and Spenser, and spent ten years devising, researching and writing a four-volume blank-verse epic about the origins of Britain. He died in 1926, his literary reputation largely restored thanks to the efforts of T. E. Lawrence.

Andrew Taylor's entertaining and richly detailed biography brings to life one of the most intrepid, romantic and fascinating British scholar-eccentrics.