The Road To Oxiana

Resumen del libro

In 1933, the delightfully eccentric Robert Byron set out on a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad and Teheran to Oxiana - the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. His arrival at his destination, the legendary tower of Qabus, although a wonder in itself, is not nearly so amazing as the thoroughly captivating, at times zany, record of his adventures. In addition to its entertainment value, The Road to Oxiana also serves as a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travellers. Here, 'armchair travellers will find newspaper clippings, public signs and notices, official forms, letters, 'diary entries', essays on current politics, lyric passages, historical and archaeological dissertations, brief travel narratives (usually of comic-awful delays and disasters), and - the triumph of the book - at least twenty superb comic dialogues, some of them virtually playlets, complete with stage directions and 'musical' scoring.' Paul Fussell

Biografía del autor

El nombre de Robert Byron (1905-1941) debe escribirse con mayúsculas. Uno de uno de los grandes viajeros del siglo xx, autor de algunos de los libros de viajes más influyentes y atractivos que se hayan escrito. The Station señaló el camino de la Grecia rural y monástica a Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor; Viaje a Oxiana nunca faltó en el equipaje de Bruce Chatwin. Educado en Eton y Oxford, pronto abandonó la alta sociedad británica para empezar a deambular por los tortuosos caminos de la Europa de entreguerras y el convulso Oriente Próximo de los años treinta. Nunca paró. Un submarino alemán torpedeó el carguero en el que viajaba hacia Oriente Medio en febrero del 41. Sólo así la barbarie lo pudo detener.