This review originally ran on Green Man Review.
Barbara Hodgson’s The Lives of Shadows was one of the best and most intriguing works of fiction I’ve read in quite a while. I’ve read and reviewed a number of books about the Middle East, including one about a contemporary woman traveling in Kurdistan (Christiane Bird’s A Thousand Sighs, a Thousand Revolts ). So I was delighted when Greystone Books sent us a review copy of Dreaming of East.
Unlike The Lives of Shadows, Dreaming of East is explicitly non-fiction, a relatively brief (less than 200 pages total) historical-biographical overview of several women who traveled in the so-called “Orient” (Turkey, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia/Iraq, Persia/Iran, Egypt and North Africa) during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when such travel was definitely not considered proper for women. Although I was familiar with many of these women by name or reputation already, I enjoyed having the opportunity this book afforded to consider them as a group.
Hodgson organized the narrative into thematic chapters focusing on such matters as the logistics of travel, clothing, scholarly pursuits, and friendship with natives of the region (both male and female). Each of these chapters also pays particular attention to one or two of the women travelers whose activities exemplifies some key aspect of that theme. So, for example, the chapter on clothing features a short biographical essay about Lady Hester Stanhope, who traveled in Egypt in the early nineteenth century wearing Turkish men’s attire. The chapter on scholarly pursuits highlights Isabel Burton, wife of Sir Richard Burton, who often traveled with her husband when they were stationed in Damascus and used her status as a woman to pay social calls on native women living in secluded harems.
I was greatly impressed by Hodgson’s elegant, accessible writing style and her reliance on a variety of primary and secondary sources to document her narrative. I found references in her bibliography to book-length biographies on several of these women, as well as collections of their letters and journals, that would in themselves make fascinating reading. I spent quite a lot of time gazing at some of the illustrations, especially the photographs of women and their native escorts en route. I learned that a dragoman is a translator — how often have I encountered that word in fiction I’ve been reading, and assumed that it referred to a guide of some sort!
Dreaming of East is a small, high quality trade paperback book, with fold-in flaps on the cover (mimicking those you’d find on a hardcover dustjacket) and pages printed on glossy coated stock. The finish on the pages really enhances the appearance of the photos, sketches and etchings that fill the book. Like Lives of Shadow, Dreaming of East is richly illustrated — every two-page spread features at least one piece of artwork. Each of these pieces of artwork is accompanied by detailed credits including artist (where applicable), date, and source of the original. Despite its small size, the book includes endnotes, a full bibliography, and an index.
If I have one complaint about this otherwise charming and useful book, it’s that Hodgson makes repeated references to the same women as they exemplify themes across the chapters, regardless of their place in history. For example, Princess Christina Belgiojoso, who lived from 1808-71, appears on quite a few pages alongside Gertrude Bell, who lived from 1868-1926. There were times when I found this approach extraordinarily confusing, especially when the women’s names were less familiar to me, as these were.
(Greystone Books, 2005)
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