The Road to Oxiana, Robert Byron
The Road to Oxiana, Robert Byron
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The Road to Oxiana

Author: Robert Byron

Narrator: Barnaby Edwards

Unabridged: 11 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/01/2019


Synopsis

In 1933, Robert Byron set off from Venice with his friend Christopher Sykes to explore the architecture of the Middle East. Their long and arduous journey took them from Cyprus and Jerusalem to Syria, Iraq, Persia and Afghanistan, and finally Oxiana, a tiny country around the river Oxus, the Greek name for the river Amu Darya, which snakes down from Russia into Afghanistan. They travel by any means necessary (truck, camel, horses and foot), and encounter several setbacks, but their risks are rewarded as they encounter some of the greatest examples of Eastern art and architecture, many of which have now vanished forever. Funny and erudite, The Road to Oxiana's combination of exquisite lyricism, detail and humor gave birth to a new kind of travel literature, serving as inspiration for later writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Peter Matthiesson and Jan Morris.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jeffrey

”Baalbek is the triumph of stone; of lapidary magnificence on a scale whose language, being still the language of the eye, dwarfs New York into a home of ants. The stone is peach-coloured, and is marked in ruddy gold as the columns of St. Martin-in-the-fields are marked in soot. It has a marmoreal t......more

Essential reading. In fact, this was such a fresh conception of the travel-amid-ruins-cum-history-cum-memoir that it has served as a model for Bruce Chatwin, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Pico Iyer, Peter Matthiessen, Jan Morris and other writers over the years. It contains a great many references to Persia......more

Goodreads review by Paul

Mash-up : The Rough Guide to the Middle East with Brideshead Revisited, the whole thing written up by that saucy boy Anthony Blanche. I did immoderately love flamboyant young Anthony up to no good in the louche bars of Oxford but when he morphs into Robert Byron and swans around sneering at Johnny F......more