{"product_id":"nyrb-classicsisbn-9781681370729","title":"NYRB Classics","description":"\u003cb\u003eA riveting account of a landmark expedition that left only one survivor, now back in print for the first time in decades.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eArabia Felix\u003c\/i\u003e is the spellbinding true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously awry. 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—an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first organized foray into a corner of the world unknown to Europeans. The expedition made its way to Turkey and Egypt, by which time its members were already actively seeking to undercut and even kill one another, before disappearing into the harsh desert that was their destination. Nearly seven years later a single survivor returned to Denmark to find himself forgotten and all the specimens that had been sent back ruined by neglect. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on diaries, notebooks, and sketches that lay unread in Danish archives until the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eArabia Felix \u003c\/i\u003eis a tale of intellectual rivalry and a comedy of very bad manners, as well as an utterly absorbing adventure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eArabia Felix\u003c\/i\u003e includes 33 line drawings and maps.\"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\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“First and foremost, \u003ci\u003eArabia Felix\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eA Sense of Direction\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The material that Thorkild Hansen has gathered for this book is as dramatic and colorful as anything....\u003ci\u003eArabia Felix\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"An epic voyage...unflaggingly readable and interesting.\" —Don Moraes, \u003ci\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"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, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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, \u003ci\u003eAustin American-Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A  scholarly and exciting account...an admirable writer, whose  narrative  energies [are] clear and dynamic...he tells it simply and  well. \u003ci\u003eArabia Felix\u003c\/i\u003e must appeal to anyone who enjoys reading of adventure and exploration.\" —Michael Adams, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eThorkild Hansen \u003c\/b\u003e(1927–1989) was born in Ordrup, Denmark, and studied literature at the University of Copenhagen for two years before moving to Paris in 1947. In France, Hansen supported himself by writing dispatches for the Copenhagen-based tabloid \u003ci\u003eEkstra Bladet\u003c\/i\u003e. He returned to Denmark in 1952 and published his first full-length novel, \u003ci\u003eResten er Stilhed\u003c\/i\u003e (The Rest Is Silence) in 1953. Hansen would go on to write more than two dozen books, many of which drew on the historical record to interrogate Denmark’s record of imperialism, including \u003ci\u003ePausesignaler\u003c\/i\u003e (Pause Signals, 1959); \u003ci\u003eJens Munk\u003c\/i\u003e (1965), which won the Golden Laurel Award; a trilogy about the Danish slave trade (1967–1970), the final volume of which won the Nordic Council Prize; and \u003ci\u003eProcessen mod Hamsun\u003c\/i\u003e (The Case Against Hamsun, 1978). He died aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean in 1989.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJames McFarlane\u003c\/b\u003e (1920–1999) studied modern languages at Oxford and was the first dean of the school of European studies at the University of East Anglia. Britain’s preeminent Ibsen scholar, he edited the eight-volume \u003ci\u003eThe Oxford Ibsen\u003c\/i\u003e, translating a number of the books himself. He and Kathleen Crouch were married in 1944.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eKathleen McFarlane\u003c\/b\u003e (1922–2008) was a translator and a celebrated weaver and artist from Sunderland. One of her fabric sculptures hung in Norwich Castle for thirty years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eColin Thubron\u003c\/b\u003e is the president of the Royal Society of Literature. Among his books are \u003ci\u003eThe Lost Heart of Asia\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eShadow of the Silk Road\u003c\/i\u003e, and most recently, \u003ci\u003eNight of Fire\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also, with Artemis Cooper, the co-editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Broken Road\u003c\/i\u003e, the final volume of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Walking Trilogy.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302987976933,"sku":"NP9781681370729","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681370729_685bcc79-82de-4d1f-86c7-69b22a6d77cf.jpg?v=1730752656","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/nyrb-classicsisbn-9781681370729","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}