DOUGHTY (CHARLES M.)


Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2 vol., FIRST EDITION, [LIMITED TO 500 COPIES], half-titles, plates (some folding), and illustrations in the text, folding lithographed map dissected and laid on linen (part split at folds) in pocket at end of volume 2, modern green morocco, red gilt morocco spine labels, 8vo, Cambridge, University Press, 1888
|Limited to only 500 copies, "Travels in Arabia deserta... is an unrivalled encyclopaedia of knowledge about all aspects of nineteenth-century and earlier Arabia... so reliable was the book's anthropology of the Bedouin peoples and its topography, that British intelligence mined it for information during the First and Second World wars..., in its authenticity, originality, and power, Doughty's English–Arabic style rivals the work of other Victorian prose masters such as Carlyle, Ruskin, and Pater. Poet Robert Bridges quickly recognized Arabia deserta's uniqueness, and it was one of William Morris's favourite books toward the end of his life" (ODNB).