Robert Byron (1905–1941)
Autor/a de The Road to Oxiana
Sobre l'autor
Robert Byron serving as a correspondent for a London newspaper during World War II
Obres de Robert Byron
Obres associades
Etiquetat
Coneixement comú
- Data de naixement
- 1905-02-26
- Data de defunció
- 1941-02-24
- Gènere
- male
- Nacionalitat
- UK
- Lloc de naixement
- Wembley, Middlesex, England, UK
- Lloc de defunció
- at sea (off the coast of Scotland)
- Llocs de residència
- England, UK
Peking, China - Educació
- Eton College, Eton, Berkshire, England, UK
University of Oxford (Merton College) - Professions
- travel writer
art critic - Relacions
- Sykes, Christopher (travel companion)
Parsons, Desmond (living companion)
Butler, Lucy (sister)
Membres
Ressenyes
Llistes
Premis
Potser també t'agrada
Autors associats
Estadístiques
- Obres
- 16
- També de
- 4
- Membres
- 1,556
- Popularitat
- #16,557
- Valoració
- 3.9
- Ressenyes
- 18
- ISBN
- 75
- Llengües
- 10
- Preferit
- 3
- Pedres de toc
- 83
It was never quite clear to me why he was so obsessed with seeing the Oxus river. Perhaps because it was so inaccessible to Westerners? He had to deal with mistrust by the Afghanis, some of whom thought he was an English spy wanting to map the southern Russian border (which is Turkmenistan these days).
Its most entertaining entries (it is written in diary form) have to do with people, the landscape, and the almost endless obstacles to travel in a remote part of the world. Hired lorries swept away in flooded rivers, or primitive living arrangements, for instance.
Toward the end of his journey, he comes across the Buddhas of Bamiyan. After being stunned by the beauty of the mosques of Persia and northwest Afghanistan, he is harsh in his critique, calling them primitive and not having any artistic value -- only historical. These enormous stone (although he calls them compressed gravel) sculptures were blown up by the Taliban in March of 2001, some sixty plus years after his visit.… (més)