The Nomad : The Diaries Of Isabelle Eberhardt (summersdale Travel)

Born to Russian emigres and brought up in an atmosphere of intellectual and aristocratic anachism, in her short life Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) came to be known as the ultimate enigma and a representative of everything that seemed dangerous in 19th century society. She was a transvestite and sensualist, an experienced drug-taker and a transgressor of boundaries: a European reborn as a desert Arab and devout Muslim, a woman who reinvented herself as a man, wandering the Sahara on horseback. A profoundly lonely individual for all her numerous sexual adventures, she roused controversy and and was loved and hated in equal measure; a mysterious attempt was made on her life and even her eventual death was ambiguous: she died from drowning in the desert at the age of 27. "La bonne nomade", Isabelle's diaries offer an account of her strange and passionate nomadic lifestyle; a personal record of her torments, her search for inspiration as a writer, and her spirituality. Isabelle Eberhardt's diary begins after a mournful period in her life, which in succession sees the death of her beloved mother in an earlier visit to North Africa in 1897, the suicide of her elder brother Vladimir in 1898 and the fatal illness of the man suspected to be her father, Alexander Trophimowsky, in 1899. Isabelle Eberhardt was known as the ultimate enigma and a representative of everything dangerous in 19th century society. She roused controversy and was loved and hated in equal measure. Her diaries offer an account of her strange and passionate nomadic lifestyle and a record of her torment. CONTENTS......Page 3 Introduction......Page 5 Editor’s Foreword......Page 19 Journal One......Page 23 Journal Two......Page 34 Journal Three......Page 86 Journal Four......Page 147 Notes......Page 201 Glossary......Page 207