DOUGHTY, Charles M. Wanderings in Arabia ... being an Abridgement of "Travels in Arabia Deserta". Arranged with Introduction by Edward Garnett. London: Duckworth & Co. 1908.
Two volumes, 8vo. Publisher's original green cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, top edges gilt; pp. xx, 309; x, 297; photogravure frontispiece of Doughty to vol. I, wood-engraved frontispiece to vol. II, 1 double-page map; some chipping to head and tail of spines, foxing at front and rear of each volume; this is a rare inscribed copy presented by the author to G.G. Coulton, signed to that effect on the half title of volume I.
First abridged edition. Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta was first published in 1888, but abridged by Garnett in the present form. Doughty's journey, undertaken between 1875 and 1878, 'did much to advance knowledge of north-western and central Arabia' (Henze). He was the first European to see the city of Mada'in Salih, near the northern border of Hejaz, crossed the expanse of Arabia to Jeddah, and returned via Bombay. Doughty's 'unique style of English, which [he] vehemently refused to have edited', led to four commercial presses turning down his manuscript before the Cambridge University Press agreed to publish it in 1888. 'The result was one of the great classics of travel literature which, although exceptionally demanding for the reader, passed through numerous reprintings' (Howgego III, p. 246). The geological and geographical descriptions are of such accuracy and detail that it became a military textbook for the British Army in the final phases of the Arab revolt.
A covering letter from Ruth Robbins contains important information regarding the book's provenance: 'it bears Doughty's own inscription, as he personally gave it to the well-known medieval scholar, Prof. G.G. Coulton of Cambridge. Coulton and Doughty met in Eastbourne, and apparently got on very well together (Doughty did not like meeting people on the whole). They spent many hours in conversation, I have been told, and this gift book was the result.' - Both the first and this edition have become extremely hard to find.
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