Abstract
Lawrence of Arabia, Revolt in the Desert and Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Much of the impact of Lawrence’s writing derived from the extensive publicity given to his wartime career, which he neither sought nor liked. The differences between the two main versions of his text are central to understanding their public reception at the time of their original publication. Lawrence’s war was utterly different from the war on the Western Front, and the abridged account he published stresses its adventurous qualities; his doubts about his role only appeared in the full-length version, which only became publicly available after his death. He was an enthusiastic warrior and both his attitude and the adventurous quality of his experiences are central themes in the public response.
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Primary Sources: The Memoir Texts
Lawrence, T.E. 1927. Revolt in the Desert. London, Cape. Cited in the 2011 edition, ed. R. Trevelyan, Tauris Parke Paperbacks.
Lawrence, T.E. 1935. Seven Pillars of Wisdom. London, Cape. Cited in the 1962 edition, Penguin Books.
Lawrence, T.E. 1997. Seven Pillars of Wisdom (the ‘Oxford edition’, ed. J. Wilson.) Salisbury: Castle Hill Press. A second volume was added in 2003.
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Palmer, J. (2018). Reading Lawrence in 1927: Revolt in the Desert and Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In: Memories from the Frontline. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78051-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78051-1_7
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