Lawrence of Arabia

I just finished watching the magnificent film last night for the first time - I know, I know, I'm young is all I can - but was wondering about the Folio edition, esp as it's in the Summer Sale. Is it a good read? Should I get it, or the longer version? I fear my trip into the members' room tomorrow could be an expensive one...

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is one of my favorite books of all time. It was one of the first books that got me interested in serious reading in my distant youth. I have read Revolt in the Desert, but I prefer the much lengthier and more detailed Seven Pillars.

I have several editions of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, but alas no Folio edition. I may have to correct that.

I have the Folio edition of Seven Pillars which is beautiful with it's desert sand coloured binding and David Eccles "Boys Own" cover design. Alas, I have not read it yet.

I think that Revolt in the Desert is a shortended popular version of Seven Pillars ?

> 3 and 4: thanks v much. I think this must be one of the first posts to dissuade somebody from buying a FS book. Having read a bit more about it too, Seven Pillars sounds better. The Wikipedia entry suggest FS is lying somewhat that Revolt in the Desert predates Seven Pillars as it notes George Bernard Shaw's remark of it being "an abridgement of an abridgement". (This being a reference apparently to the most common edition being a quarter shorter than the original text).

Beware, though - the book takes a different view of matters and personalities than the movie. You might not see the movie in the same light again, after finding out what Lawrence's take on things was.

The publication history of Seven Pillars is quite complicated. Basically, Lawrence's earliest extant text is the so-called 'Oxford' text. This, the result of much rewriting and revision, he had privately printed in a handful of copies in 1922. He circulated these to various friends and critics for their private comments. Bernard Shaw was one of these. However, he thought it too long and expensive to produce for his subscribers, so he reduced it by around 84,000 words (some 200 pages). Thus, the subscribers' (abridged) edition appeared in 1926. After his death in 1935, Jonathan Cape brought out a trade edition following the subscribers' text. This abridgement is the one reprinted ever since, that is, until 1997, when for the first time (apart from the literally 4 or 5 copies mentioned above) the full 1922 Oxford text was published by Castle Hill Press in another subscribers edition. A trade edition of this, slightly revised, was published by J. & N. Wilson in 2004. (I believe a 2-volume trade paperback reprint is imminent.) Mainstream publishers (including The Folio Society) continue to reprint the 1935 trade edition. Revolt in the Desert was Lawrence's response to a publisher's request at the time of the first subscribers' edition for a public trade edition. He thus abridged the subscribers' abridgement to produce this volume which was published in 1927. As this predates the trade edition of 1935 by 8 years, it can fairly be said, as far as the general public is concerned, to pre-date Seven Pillars.

>7 boldface: Boldface - I salute your bibliographical knowledge.

Lawrence is one of my special interests and I have been subscribing to the Castle Hill Press editions for some years. They have published exhaustive accounts of the publication history of Seven Pillars as a background to their publication of the complete 1922 text and very interesting it is. Lawrence returned from his desert exploits a troubled man and his efforts to put it all down on paper did nothing to alleviate his distress. I've always marvelled at his having the determination to sit down and rewrite the book all over again after he lost the manuscript at Reading station in 1919.

Is the FS edition based on the Jonathan Cape trade edition?

>9 boldface:

One of the great "what ifs?" in literature is: What if that lost manuscript should one day turn up? How different would it be from the 1922 text?

I have always had doubts about this tale. I'm sure Lawrence had some sort of manuscript of the work that preceded the 1922 version, but I wonder how extensive it was. I read a series of letters between Lawrence and Bruce Rogers when the latter was preparing a new edition of The Odyssey, with Lawrence as the intended translator. The project dragged on interminably as Lawrence worked in fits and starts, one day saying he was on a roll and completing huge sections of translation--then a few months later claiming dissatisfaction and that he was starting over.

As you say, Lawrence was a troubled man (even before his experiences in Mesopotamia, I'll wager).

(edited for a fractious lower case "l")

>10 HMOKeefe: - Textually, yes, except for the addition of the 'Introductory Chapter', which was first published in 1939 in a collection of Lawrence's writings, and in which Lawrence attempts to justify his position in the historical events and gives a version of the gestation of Seven Pillars. The 'Introductory Chapter' is included in reprints after 1939.

However, the FS edition does not reproduce the original illustrations of leading figures in the Revolt which Lawrence commissioned from various artists of the day, but substitutes relevant photographs (many of them taken by Lawrence) in the Imperial War Museum archives. The maps have also been replaced with ones by Reginald Piggott. There is a Foreword of half a page by Wilfred Thesiger and a 6-page Introduction by Michael Asher.

Thanks boldface. One of my Jonathan Cape editions says that SPOW was privately printed in 1926 and first published for general circulation in July 1935. The actual edition I have is a second impression dated August 1935 and includes all of the original illustrations. I am sorry to hear that the FS edition did not include these.

Thanks boldface - that was both v helpful and v interesting. But do you think it is worth getting Revolt or is it better, as most have suggested, to hold on and get Seven Pillars? And yes, even the most cursory reading around the subject suggests the film and book must be rather different. Still a beautiful, luscious film.

I think most people would agree that Seven Pillars is the better book. Revolt in the Desert was put together very hurriedly and Lawrence's heart was very much with Seven Pillars which he hoped and intended would stand comparison with what he considered the really great books of literature. He wrote, "Do you remember my telling you once that I collected a shelf of ‘Titanic’ books . . . and that they were The Karamazovs, Zarathustra, and Moby Dick. Well, my ambition was to make an English fourth."

That said, 'Revolt' is a much, much shorter book and it depends how much of Lawrence you want to immerse yourself in! If you're a Lawrence nut like me, you'll want both.