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Исторический ТЭЛ:
telawrence выкладывает фото чулана с пылесосом в Клаудс Хилл
Рикори цитирует "Чеканку"
Делает плакат ко дню рождения ТЭЛ siore, в Англии по поводу дня рождения ТЭЛ планируют статую

Фандом:
За миди на ФБ можно проголосовать тут
Выкладку драбблов комментирует suricate
Выкладку мини комментирует Disk D
Выкладку миди комментирует siore, stochastic, Запасной аэродромчик, Jedith
Запасной аэродромчик призывает голосовать

Фантворчество:
ФБ-команда выкладывает миди: часть 1, часть 2, часть 3
Рикори пишет фик Очищение (PG-13, Фейсал/Лоуренс)

@темы: обзоры

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Сегодня исполняется 125 лет со дня рождения Т.Э.Лоуренса

[tes3m]

Зигфрид Сассун о Лоуренсе: "He had a terrific power that could be frightening, but it was his gentleness which left a particular impact on my mind... It seemed to me that he had what I can only describe as "power over life", by which I mean that he could make things happen by his influence on other people. He was almost like a too high powered motor bicycle, almost ower-powered. He had some indescribable magnetism, which in later years he used very little. To call him a charlatan as some people have done is a wicked representation of the worst possible kind. Everything I know of his character belies it. He was absolutely true mettle all through"* (1962).
* A touch of genius: the life of T.E. Lawrence by Malcolm Brown, ‎Julia Cave - 1988, p.196.

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[moody flooder]

Исторический ТЭЛ:
telawrence выкладывает фото Лоуренса на моторках и цитирует, наручных часов ТЭЛ и его граммофона
Фандом:
Проголосовать за челленджи на ФБ можно тут
Про выкладку мини пишет Квисти и /muramasa/
Про выкладку челленджей пишет papa-demon, Siore, Stochastic
Siore делает дополнительный плакат и цитирует Лиддел-Гарта и тут
doubledaybooks советует, кк фальсифицировать свою историю, на примере Лоуренса

Фантворчество:
januaried выкладывает аватарки

@темы: обзоры

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Воспоминания двух сослуживцев Лоуренса из Танкового корпуса

[tes3m]

CAPTAIN G. E. KIRBY and SERGEANT W. E. JEFFREY, Royal Tank Corps. Capt. Kirby: Born 1888, enlisted in infantry, 1906; R.T.C., 1917;now Quartermaster; first met T.E.L. in I923. Sergeant Jeffrey: Born 1906, enlisted in R.T.C., 1922; now Sergeant-Clerk in Orderly Room; first met T.E.L. in I924.


IN MARCH 1923, a recruit named 'T. E. Shaw' arrived at the Royal Tank Corps Depot, Bovington Camp. It was glaringly evident that he was no ordinary recruit, for he was both over the maximum age and under the minimum height for enlistment. It was rumoured that he had been attested for service under special authority given by the War Office; this proved to be true.
     He was treated in the usual manner, undergoing medical and dental examinations for physical fitness, and taking the educational test. One of the subjects of this was a short essay on 'Your first impression of Bovington Camp.' Shaw had arrived at Bovington after dusk on the evening prior to the day on which the test was held. His effort to write a short essay resulted in: 'I arrived in the darkness, and have not yet had time to look round.'
     From the day of his arrival he earned respect due principally to his quiet and reserved manner. It could be seen at a glance that he was older and far more experienced than the average recruit, yet he did not, at that time, speak to anyone of his former life. Thjs silence in the recruit stage of service was so unusual as to arouse interest. He carried out his sixteen weeks of drill on the square with enthusiasm and appeared to enjoy the varied efforts of his squad companions to master the drill.
     Many of his squad companions were taken by him in turn, on his motor cycle combination, to a seaside resort some seven miles distant to bathe. An incident serves to indicate his thoughtfulness for others. A very smart soldier, six feet in height and of a splendid carriage, was losing some of his soldierly bearing and was inclined to walk with a limp. Shaw made discreet inquiries and discovered that this was due to a crack on the ankle during a game of hockey, and asked if he would care to have his ankle correctly set by a well-known London specialist, and received the reply that this was out of the question, since he could not afford such treatment. Shaw then asked if he would undergo the treatment if it could be given free of cost, and after a few weeks of treatment the man regained the full use of his ankle. Many other acts of kindness Shaw took care to perform surreptitiously, so that the beneficiary was unaware of the donor.
     On completion of his recruit training, Shaw was available for general duty. It had been decided'to reorganize the Quartermaster's Stores into which department he was drafted, with several others, to assist in moving the bales of clothing, etc. It was soon evident that he was the driving force behind the work. From this time until he transferred to the Royal Air Force on August 18th, 1925, he was employed on the Quartermaster's Staff as a storeman, and was 'highly delighted to have been chosen to carry out duties which entailed so little responsibility'. Nevertheless, he was most zealous and exacting in the performance of his several tasks. Here, his lightheartedness and readiness for fun was at its peak. When, for example, he had occasion to issue a beret (in his capacity of storeman) to a rather starchy warrant officer, whose size happened to be 7 3/8, he sent up a 7 1/4 — the largest size in store at the time. This was returned with the message that it was too small, and a 7 3/8 was required. So slight an obstacle was overcome by altering the marking to 7 3/8 and stretching the cap band. Later he was informed that the second cap was a perfect fit.
     Some weeks after his arrival, for some slight contravention of military regulations, he was ordered to be confined to barracks for a short time. (During this confinement, a pass to leave barracks is only permissible under very exceptional circumstances.) To Shaw's extreme pleasure he received a communication from the Air Ministry requesting him to report there on a certain dav. Without hesitation or referring the matter to higher authoritv, he telegraphed the reply; 'Unable to comply with request, as am a defaulter'. The military authorities were instructed to arrange for him to be sent on leave without delay.
     On another visit to the Air Ministry, dressed in the uniform of the Royal Tank Corps and a beret which had just been issued to him, he overheard: 'We always thought the Chief was in favour of berets being worn by us, and now we're sure — this bloke's come up to give him a demonstration.'
     It was not long before newspaper reporters discovered him at Bovington Camp, but his friends usually asked reporters to wait a few minutes whilst they tried to find him, went and warned him, then returned to inform the newspaper representative that he had just left camp. He did go straight to his garage and leave the camp on his motor cycle, returning a few hours later, when he thought that the reporters had departed.
     Shaw never expected privileges other than those accorded to soldiers similarly placed to himself; thus it was his custom to visit many of his in6uential friends dressed in the uniform of a private soldier. During one of these visits (he was dining with a well-known General, he said) he was asked how he managed to obtain such a well-fitting suit of khaki. He was very pleased to explain that it was due to the fact that he worked in the Quartermaster's stores.
     Shaw endowed all his personal friends at Bovington with applicable nick-names, and he was referred to by them as the 'Little Man'. One of his comrades wore blue pyjamas in the barrack room; some days later, Shaw staggered around the room in scarlet pyjamas, several sizes too large for him, tripping himself with the legs. He afterwards presented them to the owner of the blue ones, remarking that he deserved them for his courage in wearing pyjamas amongst 'us hairy-chested soldiers'.
     Once, when he accidentally tore his comrade's underpants in a barrack-room tussle, he insisted on giving the owner two new pairs.
     His cottage near the camp was open to his many friends, and he was hardly ever in possession of the key of the door— one or other having it in his possession. He was dhtermined that its surroundings should not be spoiled. The Post Ofice had occasion to extend the telephone beyond the cottage, and erected standards for the wires on the edge of his property. He was most indignant. Meeting him on his way to Poole to see the postal authorities on the matter, I attempted to soften his wrath by remarking that the standards did little harm where they had been placed. He said he had certain rights as a citizen and intended to use them. The next day the standards were removed, and the telephone wires placed underground.
     It was suggested by one of his friends that it would be a great convenience if he had a telephone in the cottage. He said that there was nothing he would like better, as letters took several days to reach it, and telegrams often longer, but until the Postmaster-General introduced 'one-way telephone traffic' he would not consider the installation. He wanted a phone he could use, but not one that would afford other people the opportunity of phoning him at any odd moment they felt inclined.
     He hated jazz in any form, and was most eccentric in many of his actions. For instance, he shaved without a brush— using only carbolic soap and a safety razor.
     After his recruit training, he ceased to have meals in the dining-hall, and had only an evening meal each day in a restaurant in camp. He was invariably accompanied by one or two of his comrades, and would never permit them to foot the bill. Food, for his comrades whom he allowed to spend their leisure hours in his cottage and for himself, he bought in 'bulk'. On one occasion he took an excursion on his motor cycle, and the next day asked a friend (with a twinkle in his eyes) to take a taxi to the railway station and collect 'the groceries', take them to the cottage and unpack them. Result — 100 1 lb. jars of jam (assorted), 2 lbs. each of several varieties of cheese, 50 bottles of fruit salad, 50 tins of 'Ideal' milk, etc.
     He had no desire for promotion, yet was delighted to see any of his friends 'climb the ladder'. Here is an extract from one of his letters: 'What about getting Corporal soon'? Lance Corporal is only a step towards that: vile in itself, and unfortunate for others. Up with you: hurry. I want to know a Sergeant.' Later, he remarked to another friend, 'The little beast's a Sergeant!'
     He hated letter-writing, yet his principle was that true friendship demanded a Christmas letter, and he endeavoured to maintain that code, even after his transfer to the Royal Air Force.
     Many a soldier's life was brightened by his cheerful companionship 'and unostentatious kindness during his stay in Bovington-Camp from March I923 to August 1925. He left behind friends whom he never failed to look up on his visits to his cottage.

T.E. Lawrence by his Friends, 1937, pp. 319-322.

@темы: окружение ТЭЛ, Clouds Hill, отзывы о ТЭЛ

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Исторический ТЭЛ:
telawrence выкладывает фото письменного стола ТЭЛ
telawrence выкладывает портрет ТЭЛ пера William Rothenstein, 1920

Фильм:
toshiromifunes выкладывает фото с подготовки к съемкам "Лоуренса"
telawrence выкладывает плакат Katie Kath к 50-летию фильма

Фандом:
Проголосовать за выложенные на ФБ мини можно тут
Про арт-выкладку пишет - luci -, Икебана Фаберже
Про выкладку мини пишет Чай с ванилью
Про драббловую выкладку пишет Rendomski
doubledaybooks советует, кк фальсифицировать свою историю, на примере Лоуренса

Фантворчество:
На ФБ выложены мини нашей команды: авторские работы и переводы
nostrilprince рисует Лоуренса и Али

@темы: обзоры

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[moody flooder]

Исторический ТЭЛ:
telawrence выкладывает фото Лоуренса с Аудой, мемориальную доску из школы, где ТЭЛ учился, фото спальников "мой" и "твой" и фото выставленного на аукцион ножа ТЭЛ

Фильм:
caro8680 выкладывает французский постер к "Лоуренсу Аравийскому"
- Luci - смотрит "Лебедь" с Алеком Гиннесом (Фейсал в ЛА) и "Опасного человека"
Елена Рюрик цитирует диалог Ауды и Али

Фандом:
Проголосовать за арты на ФБ можно тут
Про драбблы ФБ-команды пишут: Papa-demon, /muramasa/, Хриза, Siore
Про визитку команды ТЭЛ на ФБ пишет Sforza Changryeon, BlueberryS
Про арты ФБ-команды пишут: Siore тут и тут, Stochastic тут и тут, /muramasa/
fashion lemur выкладывает фото барельефа, напоминающего ей Лоуренса
Siore делает дополнительный постер к голосованию и тут

Фантворчество:
На ФБ выложены клипы и арт команды ТЭЛ
64hellboy делает коллаж с ТЭЛ и Чубаккой

@темы: обзоры

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Cтатья Дж.Н. Локмана, посвященная проблеме подлинности инцидента в Дераа (ч.2)

[tes3m]

Начало
9. Chapters 79 and 81 of Seven Pillars of Wisdom. In Seven Pillars, there would appear to be circumstantial evidence against the truth of the Deraa incident, to be found not only in the Deraa chapter itself, 80 (see point 10), but also in the chapters bracketting it, 79 and 81. These relate events of the days immediately before and after the alleged incident, and contain details which tend to contradict its reality.
     In Chapter 79, Lawrence describes his sojourn at Azrak in mid-November 1917 using language strongly suggestive of a lengthy stay there, and thus consistent with his aforementioned "ten days" reference: "Then began our flood of visitors. All day and every day they came," "day after day," "at last," "these slow nights," etc. One or two such statements could perhaps be considered exaggerations by Lawrence, but the four or five such seem to reinforce one another. Yet, if the Deraa chapter is true, Lawrence spent only about five days at Azrak, November 12 — 16, before leaving it on the 17th on the Hauran reconnaissance ride which took him to Deraa on November 20. As previously mentioned, the entire ride would have taken him about five days, November 17 — 22. In fact, since the temporal references above occur in Seven Pillars only after the mention of Lieutenant Wood's departure from Azrak, which took place on November 14, the Seven Pillars time-line leaves just three days, November 14 — 16, for all the subsequent experiences of Chapter 79. This is rather odd.
     The only extant wartime evidence for Lawrence's whereabouts during that crucial week, apart from the problematic "ten days" passage previously quoted, is a mention, in his October 1918 report on "The Destruction of the Fourth Army," that "Talal... had come to me in Azrak in 1917." This meeting, according to the Seven Pillars account, occurred in the days after Lt. Wood left Azrak on November 14. The October 1918 mention thus apparently confirms Lawrence's Seven Pillars account of that meeting at Azrak, but not of the joint reconnaissance which in Seven Pillars follows it.
     Moreover, in Chapter 81 of Seven Pillars, Lawrence describes his return from Deraa to Azrak on November 22 and the factors then affecting his decision to ride south to Akaba the very next day. The bad weather, which discouraged further raids, and the unpleasant crowd of visitors are the main factors mentioned. His physical condition is not mentioned in this connection, though it would, of course, have been a major consideration if he had just been tortured. Indeed, his mention of the other factors seems superfluous, and could therefore be interpreted as a revealing admission.
     Remarkably, Chapters 79 and 81 flow together quite well without Chapter 80 placed between them, as indeed they appeared in the 1927 abridgement Revolt in the Desert, from which the Deraa chapter was removed. How could Lawrence have committed such telltale mistakes in Seven Pillars (if, in fact, they were such)? As literary critics have noted, he was an extremely "granular" writer, concentrating intensely on individual scenes, but rather neglecting to knit his narrative together. "It crawls," he himself once complained of Seven Pillars. His blindness to the larger context could well-have resulted in such Deraa oversights.

10. Deraa chapter details. The Deraa chapter in Seven Pillars of Wisdom has long been subject to analysis, but largely from a literary, psychological, or psycho-sexual perspective, not from a factual one. With regard to the latter, the wealth of detail Lawrence relates here undoubtedly seems, to most all readers, so convincingly real as to be beyond doubt. However, upon scrutiny it is not. Four separate points can be made. First, whether or not the incident as a whole is fictional, certain details must in any case be recognized as fictional. Second, all of the physical details Lawrence relates about Deraa station could easily derive from observations made by him on a later occasion. (5) Third, certain sentences he deleted from the 1922 Oxford text before publishing his 1926 Subscribers' edition are at least consistent with the notion of an extensive Deraa fiction. Fourth, Lawrence's anxiousness to explain the lack of any rumor of the incident seems apparent from one particular passage. Taking these points in order:
First, several details in Lawrence's Deraa narrative are clearly products of his imagination. When he writes, for example, of the whip having a point "finer than a pencil," this is sheer hyperbole. So, too, when he describes his head being pulled round to observe the lacerations, a physical impossibility. The two powerful slashes to his groin would, if real, have left his testes swollen, or worse, for several days afterward, making any riding extremely difficult. Then there is the Bey's merely vague identification of him in Seven Pillars, a direct contradiction to the more definite identification related in his 1919 letter to Stirling. Similarly, the guards' puzzlement over that vague identification in Seven Pillars would again have to be fictional according to the account given in the Stirling letter. Such demonstrably fictional details are not reassuring for the truth of the whole account.
     Second, all of the physical details, of things Lawrence observed in and around Deraa station, could easily be owed not to a November 1917 visit, but to his two-day stay at Deraa in late September 1918. So, for example, his descriptions of the aerodrome, the huts, the railway, (6) the square, the Bey's house (and furnishings within), the dispensary, the bridge, the wells, the valley, etc. All these places and objects were encompassed within a very small area, which Lawrence traversed repeatedly on those two days in late September 1918.
     Third, a couple of deletions made from the 1922 Oxford text are noteworthy. Despite Lawrence's later claim to have revised the Deraa chapter nine times, he actually did no major or even moderate "revision," but only some light pruning and polishing in which approximately ten percent of the text was affected: some superfluous words were deleted, choicer ones substituted, and a half-dozen full sentences were cut, notably the final three sentences comparing his masochistic fascination with whipping to a moth's striving toward its flame. Two deleted sentences earlier in the account are of particular relevance here: Lawrence's likening of his agony to a dream, and his comment on the convenience of his escape (see Knightley and Simpson). Apparently neither sentence sat well with him upon reflection, and so they were dropped.
     Fourth, in a passage whichrecalls that "hushed up" statement in his 1919 letter to Stirling, Lawrence seems at pains to explain the secrecy of the incident: "Halim had been up to Deraa in the night, and knew by lack of rumour that the truth had not been discovered. I told them a merry tale of bribery and trickery, which they promised to keep to themselves..."
     None of this, of course, renders his account downright unbelievable, but certainly less credible than might appear from a superficial reading.

11. Admissions of fiction. In one or two passages of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence may be hinting that his imagination has been largely applied in the writing of portions of the book. First, in Chapter 99, he writes that all his life he had wanted to create a work of art in some "imaginative form." Second, in Chapter 103, at the end of his disturbing self-analysis, he admits of "treating fellow-men as so many targets for intellectual ingenuity: until I could hardly tell my own self where the leg-pulling began or ended."

12. Lawrence's sexual masochism. Lawrence's voluntary postwar floggings were apparently all applied primarily to his buttocks. This implies a sexual masochism rather than its opposite, ascetic atonement, in which, presumably, his back would instead have been whipped. Such sexual masochism itself implies certain fantasies attending it. Upon Lawrence's own request, at least some of the floggings (and probably others) even induced a seminal emission. There is no doubt whatsoever about this crucial aspect, as Dr. Mack's biography and, especially, his personal notes on a 1968 interview (obtained by this writer only in January 1996) make clear, (7) although Mack himself rather questionably "sanctified" the floggings, and certain Lawrence biographers since him, notably Wilson, have largely evaded the issue. One could wish that those who have felt so protective of Lawrence would extend their protectiveness to the young men he thus misused. In any event, the fantasy element in Lawrence's mind must have been a poweful one.
     The earliest (to my knowledge) published doubt about the reality of the Deraa episode, voiced by the critic Burton Rascoe in the June 1936 issue of Esquire magazine, posits just such a sexual fantasy as its origin.

Possible Influences on a Deraa Fiction

1. Boyhood birchings. Lawrence's mother birched him often as a boy for misbehavior.

2. St. Lawrence. His surname, Lawrence, would certainly have developed in T.E. an identification with St. Lawrence, the most famous previous Lawrence in history, and led to his imagining the enduring of tortures similar to those of the martyred saint, who, tradition has it, was roasted over fire on a grill. Although this identification is (to my knowledge) nowhere so noted by Lawrence himself (except obliquely, and perhaps guiltily, at the very end of the Deraa chapter), and has not been strongly posited by previous Lawrence writers, it must have been a considerable one even after Lawrence "discarded" Christianity as a young man. One recalls his proud identification with Napoleon based merely on the coincidence of their birthdates. Many are the cases of individuals' psyches being strongly affected by the happenstance of their names. Charles Doughty is perhaps another such.

3. Flecker's whippings and the Khalfati incident. Lawrence's friendship with James Elroy Flecker, a bisexual flagellant (see Mack; James), during his Carchemish years 1911 — 14, and Lawrence's temporary arrest and imprisonment by the Turks during the reputed Khalfati incident of about 1912 — 13, would have further stimulated his mind toward storytelling of that sort. Or, if the Khalfati "incident" was itself a fiction or exaggeration, it would be even more consistent with a perverse urge in Lawrence to invent such fantasies, e.g., the Deraa episode.

4. Turkish prisoners. Lawrence's intelligence duties in Egypt 1915 — 16 included interrogating Turkish Army prisoners of war, from whom he would have learned of the sexual abnormalities sometimes forced upon them by their superiors (see Seven Pillars, Chapter 6). He could easily have drawn on these accounts in later fabricating the realistic details of the Deraa incident. In fact, in the Oxford text of Seven Pillars he even relates having himself inflicted a minor flogging on two Arabs just a week before the Deraa incident. The passage was later deleted.

5. Auda's yarns. Lawrence was evidently impressed in the spring of 1917 with Auda Abu Tayi's fondness for spinning yarns, including self-critical ones. He relates this trait admiringly in Chapter 38 of Seven Pillars: "... so sure of his fame that he loved to shout out stories against himself." Lawrence's own fabrication of one such selfcritical or degrading story in the form of a Deraa torture would therefore, in his own mind, have borne a certain noble pedigree.

6. Newcombe's capture. Stewart Newcombe's capture by the Turks in early November 1917 could easily have generated in Lawrence's mind a similar scenario involving himself. The two men were almost simultaneously engaged in operations behind enemy lines. Lawrence undoubtedly learned of Newcombe's capture from Joyce upon returning to Akaba in late November.

7. Lawrence's shame over the failure of the Yarmuk Valley bridge raid and his abandonment of the northern expedition. Lawrence clearly felt ashamed of his failure to demolish the Yarmuk Valley bridge during the raid of November 7, 1917 (see his letter to Joyce of November 13), and probably wished to excuse it somehow. He may also have sought an excuse, both to himself and to his superiors (including posterity), for his abandonment of the northern expedition on November 23, 1917, when he abruptly rode south to Akaba. He had actually planned to remain in the north for several more weeks conducting further raids, having asked Joyce, in a note appended to his letter of November 13, for large quantities of explosives (reduced in Seven Pillars to merely "a new caravan of stores, particularly comprising Indian ratians"). (8) His abrupt departure, if not precipitated by a Deraa torture, may have been motivated partly by fear for his life in conducting further raids. Evidence for such a pessimistic mood is found in George Lloyd's contemporary notes on a conversation with Lawrence in late October 1917 (see Wilson, pp. 451 — 52), which form a moving counterpoint to Lawrence's own more cheerful letters of mid-November. Such fear, while understandable, would have been difficult for him to admit to himself. Other units of the Arab Army continued to raid the railway throughout that winter.
     Lawrence's remorse over such an abandonment could then account for his appearing "distraught" upon returning to Akaba, as some of his comrades later recalled, or thought they recalled (see Mack, p. 233).

8. Rumors of the Bey. While at Azrak in November 1917, or elsewhere later, Lawrence probably obtained information about the Bey of Deraa, such as his appearance and his treatment of prisoners (see Essay 6). Such treatment certainly included floggings and perhaps even sexual abuses. Since the Turkish 4th Army was largely destroyed in September 1918, Lawrence would thereafter have believed that most of the Turks of Deraa who could have contradicted a capture and torture fiction by him had perished in the disaster. He would thus have felt safe from exposure.

9. Black humor and Lord Jim. Lawrence drafted his Seven Pillars of Wisdom during the Paris Peace Conference in the first half of 1919. His anti-French mood there is but one contemporary element mirrored in the work. Other such influences no doubt found their echo in its pages. It is therefore perhaps significant that, during this crucial composition period, Lawrence was once recorded as engaging in an extended fiction of the "black humor" variety; namely, in his interview with the American journalist Lincoln Steffens (Outlook and Independent, October 14, 1931; and letters in December). His suggestion to Steffens that the Americans settle the Armenian problem by massacring them was clearly a joke, as is evident fl'om Steffens' account of the conversation. Admittedly, Steffens himself did not fully understand or appreciate the joke, for it was a rather tasteless one (sanitized in Mack's summary). The Armenians had, since 1915, been half-exterminated by the Turks to the sum of nearly a million of them. It was the first genocide of the 20th century. Humor of such a morbid nature was thus quite within Lawrence's repertoire. Indeed, he teased Steffens, sustaining the joke in all its convolutions for several minutes. Presumably he enjoyed his success.
     Another revealing fact from Paris in 1919, this one an outside influence, was Lawrence's reading of Conrad's Lord Jim (9). The novel treats many important themes (guilt, honor, white men leading natives) which were later explored extensively in Seven Pillars, perhaps not coincidentally so. One event in Lord Jim's very plot may have found special resonance in Lawrence's mind, when Jim is captured, abused, and then escapes from a hostile chieftain's stronghold (Chapter 25).

10. Lawrence's homosexual nature. The longstanding controversy over Lawrence's sexual nature, in particular over whether or not he had a homosexual nature, can now, perhaps, be finally settled. The answer is yes, he did have a homosexual nature. As one of the few recent researchers who have resisted drawing that conclusion, I am perhaps best qualified to do so with some finality. And here, for it is of much relevance to Deraa.
     The issue has been terribly clouded by wrongful argumentation in the past from many of those who have considered Lawrence homosexual. They frequently offered weak and even offensive evidence for this belief, such as certain exotic passages in Seven Pillars or rumors among some of his associates, which might easily have been, respectively, a result of Lawrence's literary artistry (and honest reportage) or malicious gossip. Such writers, apparently believing that, "Where there is smoke, there must be fire," have failed to realize that, though the image is a fine one, the analogy is quite false. Mere rumor of scandal does not imply real scandal, though it does then often create one. Reputations are ruined in the process. It happens all the time.
     In my previous work, on Meinertzhagen and Lawrence, I therefore discounted the related testimony of people such as Woolley, Bremond, Vickery, Meinertzhagen, James (on Bilbo), and others. The intent was not to deny the possibility that Lawrence had a homosexual nature, but only to de-sensationalize it by exposing the falsity or doubtfulness of their particular allegations. Some evidence for heterosexual feelings, long ignored by Lawrence writers, was responsibly added to the equation.
     However, further study has led to certain undeniable insights. Lawrence's own words, or those reliably attributed to him, are the best testimony in this matter. And, on that basis, it can indeed be said that sufficient evidence — not overwhelming, but sufficient — now exists to confirm that Lawrence did indeed have, in agreement with at least some of those aforementioned rumors, a homosexual nature. In particular, the publication of a second Letters volume in 1988 has brought to light several illuminating, if still ambiguous, statements of his. Other ambiguous or suggestive statements can be found in Chapter 1 of Seven Pillars ("Several, thirsting "), and in The Mint, II, 2 ("they fight its expression"). Substitute a first person pronoun in such passages, and the meaning becomes clear. Comments by Lawrence to Robert Graves about "S.A.", and to Kathleen Scott ("Admitted his proclivities"; see James' revised 1995 edition) are also relevant, as is a private jotting to himself once ("men's bodies... appeal to me"; see Mack) None of these statements, considered alone, would warrant the conclusion that they are admissions of a homosexual nature, for Lawrence elsewhere (discreetly) contradicted the notion. Yet, when the ambiguities mount, they eventually reach a "critical mass" which simply cannot be denied. Add to the equation the additional factor that Lawrence would probably have admitted such a nature only ambiguously anyway, and the conclusion is almost inescapable. Moreover, the statistical possibility of his having been asexual, the only other apparent possibility and one he sometimes claimed, is extremely small. The condition is comparatively rare.
     Physical evidence fills out the picture. Despite denials by almost all of his friends, perfectly honest and understandable in view of the more masculine traits he exhibited, Lawrence occasionally did display mannerisms consistent with the known physiological traits of male homosexuals, e.g., a tendency, in speech, to linger on the sibilants (see TE. Lawrence by His Friends). He also had wide hips (see Images of Lawrence), another common physical trait among male homosexuals.
     Finally, there is his masochism. Dr. Mack, writing in the 1970s, only discreetly discussed this important subject. All three books on flogging or corporal punishment cited in his Bibliography are old works treating the subject of flogging very largely from a punitive perspective. More relevant works on voluntary flogging, treating it as masochism, that is, a sexual aberration, prove by numerous case histories that such sexual masochism in males is a strong indicator of latent homosexuality. This is not to say that all or even most of Lawrence's asceticism can be psychologically reduced to masochism. Much of it was more genuine.
Incidentally, since, in Lawrence's case, active homosexual behavior apparently never occurred, one should only speak of his "homosexual nature," not of his "homosexuality," a much more suggestive term. The public imagination needs no more prompting in this regard.
     The significance of all this with respect to Lawrence's personality is great. He must certainly have possessed that peculiar male-female mixture of traits which characterizes homosexuals and which often involves a craving for intrigue. His homosexual nature would therefore be consistent with a Deraa fiction in both content and form.

Possible Consequences

The foregoing points comprise some of the factors that might have led Lawrence to invent the Deraa incident, if he did so, and some of evidence that he may indeed have done just that. If he did not, and the Deraa incident is true, the coincidence of there being such a mass of apparent evidence against it (or alternately, a complete lack of probable evidence for it) is astounding.
     Although I personally remain undecided on the issue, I believe the hypothesis of a Deraa fiction can legitimately be pondered, including its consequences for Lawrence's historical significance. Such speculation is justified because Lawrence himself contributed greatly to the mystery, and apparently not innocently so, when he removed that key page from his diary. Anyone in future who discusses the Deraa question will have to weigh this, and the other points made above, in the balance.
     If Deraa proves to be a fiction, one must shudder for Lawrence's reputation. His other "embellishments" would pale in comparison with the enormity of this act. His postwar floggings would lack any tragically involuntary origin, and his "noble idealism" for the Arab cause would be hopelessly tarnished by yet another and ultimate hypocrisy, a selfish abuse of the Arab Revolt as a stage for his own perversion.
     Granted, such a development would not materially affect Lawrence's military achievements during the desert war, nor his political ones thereafter. Nor would it invalidate his great kindness and charm. He would remain important and appealing for these reasons. Even his "mystery man" aura would, for those still interested, not be much diminished, because, though the historical mystery be solved, the psychological one would deepen.
     A Deraa fiction would, however, have a considerable effect upon Lawrence's integrity as a man. It would have to be regarded as a gross miscalculation on his part, as black humor indulged in not once, impulsively in conversation, but cold-bloodedly planned for months or more. It would be an insult to the millions of soldiers who really were severely wounded in the First World War.
     Even as a fiction, the Deraa incident would deserve little credit as a piece of con-artistry, for telltale clues apparently abound, some left by Lawrence himself. There would be no "criminal professionalism" to admire even grudgingly, but, rather, only a sloppy trail to shake one's head over.
     Perhaps only Lawrence's personality has persuaded many that the incident was true. Gilman, a comrade, once wrote to Dr. Mack that, "Lawrence was far too gallant and honourable a man to invent this experience." That statement of trust innocently declares what is at stake.


5. Whether a Deraa chapter existed in the first, 1919, text of Seven Pillars (lost by Lawrence that November) and, if so, in what form, is an important but, to me at least, insoluble question. By Lawrence's own account, that original 1919 text was somewhat shorter than the 1926 Subscribers' edition. Only Meinertzhagen, Alan Dawnay, and Hogarth read it, or portions of it, but they left no record of reading any Deraa chapter (Meinertzhagen's Middle East Diary entries do not count). Hogarth's 1926 review of Seven Pillars mentions the Deraa incident in only half a sentence.
     However, that the second Seven Pillars text, written in 1920 (and later burned by Lawrence), did indeed contain a Deraa chapter seems indicated by a passage from one of its eight surviving chapters. The Deraa chapter itself is not included among them, but a later chapter in which Lawrence relates his visit to Deraa in September 1918 is included, and a single phrase in it, subsequently deleted from the later texts, mentions his passing "my old hospital" in the Deraa station area ("The Arab Revolt," p. 166, Humanities Research Center).

6. Deraa station in 1917 apparently had only four or five main railway tracks, not the "six" Lawrence so precisely describes (see Tourret, p. 30).

7. An RAF serviceman told Dr. Mack that, when witnessing the Bruce floggings in the 1930s, he twice "had to look at Ted's [...] to see if it liquidated, and it did" (Dr. Mack's notes on an interview of July 21, 1968).
     How Dr. Mack, having heard this testimony in July 1968, could then have presented the floggings as "ascetically" as he did in the February 1969 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, is difficult to fathom. Pressure by A.W. Lawrence cannot fully explain it.
     The single brief reference to a "seminal emission" in Mack's 1976 biography was similarly too discreet. Most readers will have failed to comprehend fully the clinical latinism, and instead thought Lawrence nearly a saint. So, apparently, did the Pulitzer Committee.

8. Lawrence's appended note consisted of seventeen lines requesting demolition materials and only two or three lines requesting supplies for the Indian unit.

9. Hoenselaars, Ton, and Gene M. Moore, "Joseph Conrad and T.E. Lawrence," in The Journal of the TE. Lawrence Society, Autumn 1995, p. 30.

Scattered Tracks on the Lawrence Trail: Twelve Essays on T.E. Lawrence by J. N. Lockman, Falcon Books, 1996, pp. 128-138.

@темы: masochism and sexuality, Дераа, биография ТЭЛ, Аравия

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[moody flooder]

Исторический ТЭЛ:
delilahdesanges пишет про интроспекцию в 7столпах, похожую на тамблеры подростков

Фильм:
Появляется еще немного новостей о "Королеве пустыни" Герцога (ака "Фильм, где ТЭЛ сыграет Паттисон")
amethyst deceiver дает ссылку на документальный фильм про Т.Э.Лоуренса из серии "Биографии"
- Luci - смотрит "Лоуренса Аравийского" + тут
thisisaslongas выкладывает фото О"Тула со съемок ЛА (потому что нет ничего странее Лоуренса с вискарем и сигаретой)
lottereinigerforever выкладывает фото Дэвида Лина со съемок ЛА

Фандом:
Проголосовать за драбблы команды ТЭЛ (и других) на ФБ можно тут
Про визитку команды ТЭЛ на ФБ пишет tes3m, Ayliten, Арчибальд Сигизмундович, T-Kuat, suricate
Про драбблы ФБ-команды пишут: logastr, CrazyJill
siore делает дополнительный плакат в связи с голосованием

Фантворчество:
На ФБ выложены драбблы про Лоуренса
thequeenbeekeeper пишет стих feisal i по "A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia" (Faisal I of Iraq/T. E. Lawrence)
danielphiliprobinson рисует Лоуренса на верблюде
berlynn-wohl делает коллажи Лоуренса с айфоном

@темы: обзоры

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Cтатья Дж.Н. Локмана, посвященная проблеме подлинности инцидента в Дераа (ч.1)

[tes3m]

Contra Deraa

Having, in my earlier three pieces on the Bey of Deraa, the intriguing cacti photograph* of T.E. Lawrence, and the Deraa misrepresentations of James, offered new evidence for the truth of the Deraa incident and also defended Lawrence against wild charges of its falsity, I must now "switch benches" and proceed to advance the prosecution case, offering arguments, many based on newly discovered evidence, against the truth of the incident. (1) These essays taken together thus accurately reflect the development of one open-minded Lawrence researcher over the three-year course of his study. I invite readers, too, however entrenched on one side of the debate or the other, to appreciate thereby the deep ambiguity of the question.
     What follows is a two-part presentation of the case against Deraa, consisting firstly of specific arguments against it, and secondly of probable influences in its genesis, if indeed it was an invention. The case is by no means conclusive, merely tentative.

Possible Evidence for a Deraa Fiction

1. Lawrence's three-day Azrak-Akaba ride. Lawrence's speedy ride south from Azrak to Akaba, covering nearly 300 miles in three-and-ahalf days, November 23 — 26, 1917, and completed within a week of his alleged torture in Deraa on November 20, casts doubt on the reality of that incident. During the ride, he spent an average of nearly twenty hours a day in the saddle and, as he himself relates in Chapter 81 of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, fell off his camel a number of times. Had he sustained many lacerations and two bayonet wounds at Deraa just days before, the constant motion and those falls would certainly have stretched his skin and thus reopened any such wounds. Continuing his long ride with bleeding wounds would have been next to impossible.
     Lawrence's exhaustion from the ride alone could, moreover, easily account for the much later testimony of certain comrades (see Mack, p. 233) who recalled him, or thought they recalled him, appearing "shaken" and "pale" upon his arrival in Akaba. As evidence for the Deraa incident, such testimony is therefore doubly weak.

2. Hogarth's November 29 letter, and Dawnay's November 30 report. Hogarth's statement in his letter home to his wife on November 29, 1917, alluding to an unspecified mission by Lawrence (see Essay 7, point 13) in late November, could be considered an allusion to a Hauran reconnaissance ride (as this writer long thought), until its temporal references are evaluated in light of an Arab Bureau report of November 30. Hogarth specifically writes, based on information probably two weeks old, that he knows where Lawrence is "now" and whither he is "about to go." These words agree better with Dawnay's November 30 report stating that "LAWRENCE himself has been until recently at AZRACK, but it is believed that he intends to leave today (30th November) for JAUF" (Wingate Papers, 147/2/45, Durham).



Now, Jauf lies to the southeast of Azrak and Lawrence himself refers
to such a planned visit in his December letter home, confirming the
interest (in raising the Rualla tribe?). In short, it seems very unlikely
that Hogarth's statement referred to a Hauran ride.

3. Lawrence's letter home of December 14, 1917. In this letter, Lawrence mentions that he "stayed there [at Azrakj for ten days or so" in mid-November. Such a time-table flatly contradicts that necessary for any Hauran-Deraa reconnaissance ride. The ride would have taken Lawrence five full days, judging from his two Seven Pillars accounts (1922 and 1926) of its stages: Um el Jimal, Umtaiye, Ghazale, Miskin, Sheikh Saad, Tafas, Tell Arar, Mezerib, Ataman (Uthman), Deraa, Nisib, and finally Azrak again, a total of some 200 miles. (2) The ride would therefore have left only five days before it, November 12 — 16, for his Azrak sojourn. His December 1917 reference to the "ten days" spent at Azrak is perhaps explicable as a deliberate withholding of the unpleasant (Deraa) truth from his family, but it cannot be uncritically accepted as such. Coupled with other evidence, the reference is disturbing, particularly because of its specificity. Lawrence does not merely write "some" or "several," but more explicitly "ten days or so." If, in fact, he remained at Azrak throughout that period, he would indeed have spent eleven nights there, November 12 — 22. A subsequent temporal reference in the same letter to "a few days motoring" is demonstrably correct, referring to his three-day participation in a later reconnaissance up Wadi Itm and Hawara.
     Desmond Stewart, in his 1977 Lawrence work, first cited the "ten days" reference as important evidence against the Deraa incident (the letter had been quietly published in the 1954 Home Letters volume), but it has apparently been wrongly ignored by Lawrence scholars since, rightly wary of Stewart's own fantastic alternative scenario.
     A further reference in Lawrence's December 14 letter home, to "acquaintances from Rabegh to Deraa," which might, on the other hand, seem to support the notion of a Deraa reconnaissance, could easily be a geographical note, for his parents' sake, of the nearest town to Azrak (itself probably not on many maps). The reference could also have been prompted by the visits of Syrian refugees to Azrak that November. It is not strong evidence for a Deraa reconnaissance, much less for Lawrence's capture and torture there.

4. Lawrence's December 15, 1917, trans-Jordan geography report. This report, hitherto unpublished (and only discovered by the present writer in the autumn of 1995), again suggests, now by omission, that Lawrence never went on the mid-November Hauran reconnaissance ride which he relates in Seven Pillars as having precipitated his Deraa capture. The report describes, for the benefit of British armoured car units, the terrain throughout trans-Jordan, but the Hauran region north of Deraa is not described, nor is Deraa itself. The closest area described lies a few miles southwest of it. To quote from the report:

"Major Lawrence has furnished the following information. Begins.- Pilgrim Route from AMMAN to DERAA is not passable to Cars throughout. A detour into W. EL HARITH would be involved, owing to hills on each side of DHULEIL — KHIRBET EL SUMRA and so by GHADIR ABU SAWANA to IFDEIN (MAFRAK). In winter a Ford could make this detour but not an Armoured Car. From MAFRAK to BUEIB DERAAT possible in winter by leaving Pilgrim route on right and working along watershed from GHADIR EL ABYAD. During rain and for some days afterwards route from BUEIB DERAA to DERAA unpassable. Without some days work by gang of 50 men, Pilgrim route from AMMAN to KUTRANE not possible. Path to bridge 14 [Tell el Shehab] is down a cliff 250 feet high from South. Across an unapproachable bridge and through a railway cutting from North. Bridge not negotiable by Cars as it is only a skeleton of girders.
Bridge 15 is in a more open country but except with tackle is not practicable for Cars. Except in prolonged frost or in the fine season, plain leading up to W. MEDDAN from South and North in each case impossible for Cars." (Durham, Sudan Archive, Wingate Papers, 147/3/87).

Now, all of the places named here were visited or passed by Lawrence on his two railway raids of June and early November 1917 to the south and west of Deraa, respectively. The only hint of topographical knowledge from north of Deraa or the rim of the Yarmuk Valley is Lawrence's single reference to the "plain leading up to W. MEDDAN [the Yarmuk Valley) from South and North... impossible for Cars." But this is slender evidence, for the information could well have derived from an informant (Abd el Kadir? See Seven Pillars).
     The original request for information, to which Lawrence's telegram report is the reply, has so far proven elusive. However, it appears to have inquired either of the Pilgrim Route (which begins outside Damascus), or of any topographical knowledge Lawrence gleaned in November 1917.

     If the Hauran reconnaissance ride related in Seven Pillars was a fiction, why would Lawrence have included it as background for the more specific Deraa episode? The answer would be that he probably had indeed considered, in mid-November 1917, undertaking precisely such a reconnaissance mission, and naturally remembered that plan when imagining his Deraa scenario after the war.

5. A June 5, 1918, intelligence report by Colonel Joyce describing Arab personnel at Deraa. This report, again previously unpublished, describes the composition of the Deraa staff in a manner at odds with Lawrence's later statement that his capture and escape had been "hushed up" there. Joyce notes:

"Satisfactory letters have been received by Sherif Feisal from DERAA, showing that the personnel in most of the departments, including the telegraph, are Arabs, and are available to be utilised when required. Abdel Hady el Sulah, formerly chief telegraph clerk at DERAA, is now in Sherif Feisal's camp." (Public Record Office, WO 158/634, III, 138A).

With so many disaffected Arabs manning the Turkish facilities at Deraa, it would seem unlikely that Lawrence could have been captured, interrogated, tortured, and then have escaped (search parties presumably being sent out) without his identity becoming known by the Arab personnel and thence, via secret messages, by the insurgent Arab forces. Such knowledge would then probably have been widespread by the end of the war. Yet no known Arab sources attest to it (as Mousa has repeatedly written).

6. Lawrence's September 1918 Azrak imprisonment story. This story, told by Lawrence in September 1918 to his driver S.C. Rolls, who gullibly believed it and no doubt accurately recounted it in his own 1937 work Steel Chariots in the Desert (p. 249), depicts Lawrence as having once been imprisoned in a well or cellar at Azrak. Rolls quotes Lawrence as saying: "Once I was kept a prisoner in that dungeon for months," and specifically referring to his "scratchings." The story, an obvious fiction, was related by Lawrence near enough in time and place to the alleged Deraa incident to raise suspicions as to the truth of that latter incident. The Azrak story would appear, namely, to be strong evidence for punishment fantasies in Lawrence's mind.
     Desmond Stewart, in 1977, first cited this story as evidence against the Deraa incident. It has, however, been unwisely ignored by scholars since then who, as mentioned in point 3 above, understandably dismissed the more fantastic elements in Stewart's scenario.

7. Lawrence's 1919 letter to Major Stirling. The single strongest piece of evidence for the Deraa incident is probably Lawrence's June 28, 1919, letter to Stirling (Letters, Brown). In it, for the first time, Lawrence briefly outlined the incident. The relevant eight sentences of the much longer letter read:

"I went in to Deraa in disguise to spy out the defenses, was caught, and identified by Hajim Bey the Governor by virtue of Abd el Kadir's descriptions of me. (I learnt all about his treachery from Hajim's conversation, and from my guards.) Hajim was an ardent paederast and took a fancy to me. So he kept me under guard till night, and then tried to have me. I was unwilling, and prevailed after some difficulty. Hajim sent me to the hospital, and I escaped before dawn, being not as hurt as he thought. He was so ashamed of the muddle he had made that he hushed the whole thing up, and never reported my capture & escape. I got back to Azrak very annoyed with Abd el Kadir, and rode down to Akaba." (Humanities Research Center)

     The passage itself contains little detail, except, notably, mention of Lawrence's identification by Hajim. This is related for two apparent reasons. First, it ties Lawrence's Deraa capture to Abd el Kadir, the main subject (with his brother Mohammed Said) of the letter, and thus justifies the personal digression. Second, Lawrence would certainly have been identified, however so, if caught, and Stirling would also have realized this.
     Moreover, at least two points in Lawrence's June 1919 letter to Stirling are questionable: his parenthetical statement on Abd el Kadir's treachery in betraying him, oddly interposed between two previous lines as though Lawrence were eager to add convincing details to his account; and his final, rather gratuitous claim that Hajim had "hushed up" the matter, which is something Lawrence could not possibly have known, though it does conveniently explain (or does it?) the complete lack of intelligence about such an incident.

     Furthermore, although most of the Deraa passage (and Lawrence's later such statements to others) might still seem "convincing," no experienced detective would probably give it much credence alone. Many stories sound convincing until hard evidence proves them false. And if Lawrence fabricated the Deraa incident for Seven Pillars, he would certainly also have prepared and maintained that fabrication elsewhere. That he could indeed compose elaborate written fictions is proved by his "Old Man" fantasy letters of the postwar floggings (only a fraction of which have been published). Finally, the Deraa passage in this letter to Stirling inevitably recalls Lawrence's Azrak imprisonment fiction as told to S.C. Rolls in September 1918 (perhaps gestating in his mind since then).
     The Stirling letter (3), though sensationally discovered only in 1968 and, again sensationally, predating Lawrence's extant Seven Pillars Deraa account by three years, was nevertheless written nineteen (long) months after the incident it alleges took place. It is hardly a contemporary source. It was also written to a loyal comrade (who, however, had not been at Akaba in late 1917), and while Lawrence was composing Seven Pillars. As for its status as an official report, Lawrence's admission in his introductory chapter of Seven Pillars that he occasionally lied even in his reports necessitates additional caution.
     The original "She" written for "So he" is perhaps a Freudian slip, but, if so, could be interpreted both for or against the truth of the account, its subconscious referent being either "me" or "he" or both.

8. The missing mid-November page in Lawrence's Pocket Diary of 1917 (British Library, Manuscripts Collection, Add. MS. 45983A). This page, covering the week of November 15 — 21, was clearly removed by Lawrence himself, for he then wrote, under an earlier entry of "Kasr Azrak" for November 14, the additional entry "To Hauran," thus indicating the contents, or what he wished any readers to believe were the contents, of the missing page. The removal, though possibly explicable on innocent grounds (disgust?), is at least equally explicable as a deliberate destruction of incriminating evidence (if, say, the page had recorded Lawrence's continued sojourn at Azrak that week).
     The first extant entry after the missing page, that of "Azrak" on November 22, is written in a relatively small sсript. If the size of that sсript has any psychological significance, a general feeling of discouragement could have been its cause as easily as any specific Deraa mistreatment.

     In 1926, Charlotte Shaw asked Lawrence for his two war diaries and his journals. He sent her the diaries on June 11 (British Library, Manuscripts Collection, Add.MS.45903, fo. 96). By then, she had already critiqued the manuscript of Seven Pillars and committed herself to its greatness. The work itself was in the very process of being printed. Lawrence had certainly removed the diary page by then. In sending the two diaries, he asked her to discard them soon afterward. She did not do so, but did keep them private. After her death, G.B. Shaw in 1945 gave them to the British Library. Whether he or Charlotte ever noticed the absence of that November page is uncertain.
     This missing diary page, perhaps the most significant documentary evidence for the most significant event, or non-event, in Lawrence's life, (4) is not so much as mentioned by Jeremy Wilson (nor Mack before him) in his brief discussion of evidence for the Deraa incident (Lawrence of Arabia, pp. 1083 — 84). Wilson certainly knew of it, knew it to be important, and knew that it was troubling.


1. It seems correct here to note that none of the evidence and arguments offered in this or the following essay came via responses by others in the field to the brief Deraa discussion in my Meinertzhagen book. In fact, there has been no response, which in itself is quite revealing.

2. This alleged route is remarkably similar to his September 1918 one.

3. Lawrence's March 26, 1924, letter to Charlotte Shaw (Lerrers, Brown), also discovered by Knightley and Simpson only in 1968 and likewise regarded by many since then as strong evidence for the Deraa incident, seems to me questionable on at least two counts. First, Lawrence's passage on Deraa begins on a somewhat false note: "About that night. I shouldn't tell you...," and then, of course, he does just that. Second, the passage ends with a vividly realistic fantasy: "Consider wandering among the decent ghosts hereafter, crying 'Unclean, unclean!'" This is not good evidence for the reality of the incident in question.

4. Attempts by myself, during two research trips to England in 1993 and 1995, to decipher the entries from the missing page of Lawrence's 1917 Pocket Diary by means of any pencil depressions left on the pages once bracketting it, proved fruitless. Even under magnification and special lighting, nothing could be seen. Early in 1996, I then heard of an advanced technology, the electrostatic imaging of indented depressions, often successful in precisely such cases. At my request, a test was conducted on July 9 by experts of the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory in London, in the presence of curators from the British Library. Unfortunately, the procedure was unsuccessful. Whether due to the relative hardness of the paper, or to the lightness of the writing pressure, no traces of writing from the missing page were detected on the adjacent pages.
     A further textual enigma on one of those extant bracketting pages is the name of "Salem" written under the date of November 13 and after the main entry of "Kasr Azrak." Lawrence first wrote it carefully, with serifs on the tiny capital "S," then crossed it out, as though indicating a death. One naturally recalls Lawrence's elegiac Seven Pillars dedicatory poem "To S.A." (his Carchemish friend nicknamed "Dahoum") and rumor of the full name being "Salem Ahmed." But the only source for this "Salem," T.W. Beaumont, is an extremely dubious one. Moreover, Salem is a very common Arab name. And even if the entry's original significance could be determined (e.g., that "Salem" positively identified), its relevance to the truth or falsity of the Deraa incident would still seem wide open to interpretation.

* Имеется в виду фотография Лоуренса в Палестине, 1917-1918, на которой он стоит среди кактусов. Ей посвящена статья Локмана El Aurens among the Cacti (Scattered Tracks on the Lawrence Trail: Twelve Essays on T.E. Lawrence by J. N. Lockman, Falcon Books, 1996, pp. 75-86).
Окончание статьи добавлю потом.
Scattered Tracks on the Lawrence Trail: Twelve Essays on T.E. Lawrence by J. N. Lockman, Falcon Books, 1996, pp. 113-128.


 

@темы: masochism and sexuality, Дераа, биография ТЭЛ, Аравия

---

[moody flooder]

Фандом:
На ФБ выложена визитка команды
Проголосовать за нее ( и другие команды) можно тут
Про нее пишут: stochastic, Чай с ванилью, kittymara, Илэра, Лягушка хаоса, Капитан А., Milarka-Li
Siore выкладывает дополнительные баннеры тут, тут, тут, тут, тут,
Запасной аэродромчик выкладывает страницу про Дераа из комикса

Фантворчество:
marta_kent рисует портрет ТЭЛ
Siore делает демотиватор с историческим фото
Vermin_Disciple пишет драббл The Best (Лоуренс, Али)
thisisaslongas (mayamaia) пишет стихи Ode to Peter's Eyes in Arabia и New Windows to the Soul
moth-eatn рисует арты по капсам из ЛА
herospy рисует Лоуренса на верблюде
gabrielttoro рисует портрет Лоуренса из фильма
nicksadekillustration рисует Лоуренса

Дополнения приветствуются, как всегда!

@темы: обзоры

---

[moody flooder]

Исторический Т.Э. Лоуренс:
Stochastic выкладывает цитаты из "Семи столпов мудрости"
tempestworks пишет отзыв на 7столпов и дает ссылку на подкаст с Adam Gopnik, Michael Korda, and Henry Kissinger

Фильм:
ohyeahlawrenceofarabia дает ссылку на видео с О"Тулом и Шарифом
idlesuperstar цитирует высказываниеДэвида Лина про ориентацию Лоуренса в фильме
animeandfilmotaku пишет отзыв на ЛА

Фантворчество:
jessalynwise рисует портрет ТЭЛ и Фейсала по "Опасному человеку"
thisisaslongas (mayamaia) пишет фик A Great Honor (Лоуренс/Али)
thisisaslongas дает ссылку на арт с Лоуренсом и Али
the-siege-perilous рисует ТЭЛ на скейте
demi-chen рисует ТЭЛ верхом на капибаре
apiphile дает ссылку на арт с Лоуренсом
algrenion рисует портрет ТЭЛ
ghouliesandghosties рисует пейзаж по ЛА

@темы: обзоры

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[tes3m]

Ссылка на большое изображение известной (и загадочной) картины Тьюка, о которой я уже писала в сообществе.

Генри Скотт Тьюк. Т.Э.Лоуренс. 1921-1922 (?)
И отрывок из книги Чарльза Гросвенора "Иконография. Портреты Т.Э.Лоуренса", посвященный этой картине.
HENRY SCOTT TUKE (1858-1929)Painter in oils and watercolors of portraits, seascapes, and nudes. Born in York on 12 June 1858. Studied at the Slade School 1875-80, in Italy 1880-81, and in the Paris studio of J.P. Laurens 1881-83. Member NEAC 1886. Won 1st Gold Medal at Munich in 1894 for Sailors Playing Cards. Elected ARA in 1900 and RA 1914. Chosen ARWS 1904 and RWS 1911. Lived in Cornwall and in 1914 moved to Swanpool, Falmouth. Led a solitary life and painted a number of scenes of nude boys bathing. Died near Falmouth on 13 March 1929.
MEDIUM: Oil-on-canvas
DIMENSIONS: 21" x 17"
DATE: 1922
LOCATION: Clouds Hill, Dorset
ILLUSTRATED: Page 56
No portrait of Lawrence is more of an enigma than this painting by Henry Scott Tuke. The work seemingly illustrates one of the most uncertain episodes of Lawrence's life: his purported enlistment in 1905, after a familial crisis, in a battalion of the Royal Garrison Artillery in Cornwall. Hard evidence for the enlistment has yet to publicly surface, and the painting seems in some of its details to simply add to the controversy.
Tuke, who lived and worked for most of his life in the Falmouth area of Cornwall, kept thorough records of his paintings and their particulars. This painting is listed in Tuke's published Registers as "R987 Picture of "Gray" (68); the quotation marks seemingly indicating that the name is a pseudonym. There it is listed, along with a companion piece of young boys bathing in the surf, as having been sold to R.F.C Scott.* Both pictures were in turn sold to "Gray" for a minimal sum upon the death of Scott, sometime between 1922 and 1929. "Gray" must ultimately translate to "Lawrence," as both this painting and its companion, which was later given by Lawrence to Mrs. Clare Sydney Smith, were unquestionably in Lawrence's possession by 1929. (69)
Both "Gray" and its companion piece are listed in the Registers as preparatory oil sketches for the much larger work, Morning Splendour, painted in the summer of 1921. Yet the inscription on "Gray", which appears at the lower right, reads "H.S. Tuke 1922." As a preparatory piece, "Gray" should have been painted before Morning Splendour: at the latest sometime early in the summer of 1921; and there is no evidence of Lawrence being in Cornwall at that time. That is not the case, however, for 1922.
Lawrence took two weeks' respite from his Colonial Office duties in June of 1922, according to a letter he wrote to Eric Kennington on the second of July. (70) In a letter of the same date to Robert Graves, Lawrence expressed that he was just "back from Cornwall on Friday [June 30]." (71) While there is no concrete evidence of Lawrence meeting Tuke at this time, a meeting is a distinct possibility. However, even if the two did meet and a portrait sitting took place, the "1922," while then accurate, would remain confusing: how could a preparatory sketch be painted a year after the piece for which it was a study> An answer may be found in a practice Tuke sometimes employed.
Tuke was known, on occasion, to alter his paintings. Most often this was the case in paintings depicting nudes, in an effort to conceal the identity of the model. In these works, new heads were added to existing bodies to guarantee anonymity. It seems possible that perhaps Tuke altered the head in "Gray," changing it to that of Lawrence in June of 1922, a year after the study's initial completion. Noting Tuke's propensity for keeping accurate records, it would seem that such a significant alteration, done a year later, would necessitate a revised inscription: hence a revision from "1921" to "1922" .The inscription on the painting does in fact appear to have been painted over, or at least altered, causing the resultant number to look somewhat indistinct.
Confirmation of this idea may be found in a letter written by Lawrence in November of 1928. Writing from Waziristan Lawrence essentially rejected, for several reasons, a request for a portrait sitting. He did, however, leave an opening:

But if you are like the artist who said, "Do sit: I really can't afford a proper model..." then by all means. He worked what was left of his study of me into a beach picture; after giving me a new head, several sizes smaller. (72)

This refers, obviously, to the Tuke painting. The letter confirms that Lawrence's head was added on to the picture. While Lawrence was thirtyfour years old in 1922, he still possessed what he in 1929 described to Mrs. Liddell Hart as his "juvenile head." (73) Tuke, having painted numerous heads of young boys, was probably able to adapt Lawrence's appearance to seem even younger: to the age of the youthful Artillery recruit in "Gray."
Therefore it is certain that the bulk of the painting "Gray" was not painted in 1905, but rather 1921. It also seems certain that Lawrence's head was added on to the piece, probably in June, 1922. Still, questions remain. What did Lawrence mean when he wrote "what was left of his study of me"? Had Lawrence met Tuke before 1922? Could the two have met in 1905, the year of the purported enlistment? Did Lawrence in fact enlist as a youth at all? If not, why did Tuke choose to paint Lawrence's head into "Gray"? Is the painting the source of the enlistment story or a remembrance of it? And what of the name "Gray" itself?: was it perhaps the pseudonym under which Lawrence enlisted in the Royal Artillery as a teen-ager? Answers to these questions would be pure conjecture at this point. Further conclusions must await additional evidence.
Lawrence was apparently fond of the art of Tuke, as he expressed to his friend in the Tank Corps Alec Dixon. (74) Lawrence's brother Arnold, however, felt the fondness emanated purely from this one painting. (75)
*It is most probable that "R.F.C. Scott" is itself a pseudonym. Mr. David Wainright, a Tuke scholar, and author with Kate Dinn of the forthcoming biography Henry Scott Tuke: Marine Painter 1858-1929, has searched extensively in the Public Records Office for notice of "Scott's" death and has found nothing. Mr. B.D. Price, in his fascinating unpublished essay The "Picture of 'Gray,'" has reasoned that "Scott" represents Sydney Lomer (1880-1926), a collector of a number of Tuke paintings.

68) B.D. Price, ed., The Registers of Henry Scott Tuke, (1858-1929), (Falmouth: Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, 1983).
69) Clare Sydney Smith, The Golden Reign, (London: Cassel, 1940), p. 166. The work is reproduced in the same volume opposite page 172.
70) T.E Lawrence, Letter to Eric Kennington, 2 July 1922, Original letter at HRHRC.
71) Robert Graves, TE. Lawrence to His Biographers, I, p. 20.
72) T.E. Lawrence, Letter to Elsie Falcon, November 1928, Original letter in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
73) T.E. Lawrence, Letter to Mrs. Liddell Hart, 18 September 1929, Original letter in the Hart family.
70) Alec Dixon essay, Friends, p. 325.
75) A.W. Lawrence, Letter to the National Trust, n.d..
GROSVENOR, CHARLES, An Iconography: The Portraits Of T. E. Lawrence, 1988, pp114-117, 123-124.
Также увидела в сети русский перевод рассказа Хью Давенпорта «Синева августа».
flibusta.net/b/280333/read#t3

@темы: образы ТЭЛ в искусстве, ccылки, Генри Скотт Тьюк

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[Stochastic]

Закрытая запись, не предназначенная для публичного просмотра

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Очередной перевод стиха-эпиграфа к ССМ

[Запасной аэродромчик]

К СЕЛИМ-АХМЕДУ

Тебя любил я,
И поэтому я поднял людской прилив,
И начертал на небе звездами завет:
"Свобода!" -
Имя дома о семи столпах,
Где мне сияли бы твои глаза,
Когда б я ни пришел.

Мне на пути прислуживала смерть,
И при конце дороги,
Где ждал ты, улыбаясь -
Завистливый слуга мой вырвался вперед,
И утащил тебя в безмолвную обитель.

На краткий миг в моих руках -
Единственный трофей моей любви: покинутое тело,
Лицо, открытое ласкающим ладоням земли,
Пока слепые черви
Не претворили умершую плоть.

Меня молили завершить мои труды,
Построить дом в воспоминанье о тебе -
Но я, не завершив, его разрушил,
Улучив момент.
И крохотные твари
Прочь разбежались, чтоб найти укрытье
В истрепанной тени твоих даров...

@темы: Дахум, творчество ТЭЛ, S.A.

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Обзоры

[moody flooder]

Исторический Т.Э. Лоуренс:
Чай с ванилью выкладывает цитаты из "Семи столпов мудрости"
BabyDi цитирует информацию о предыстории Арабского восстания
Stochastic цитирует письмо ТЭЛ к Стюарту Лоуренсу Ньюкомбу (шести лет)
На New York Times выложены цитаты ТЭЛ, замеченные на военных базах
georgy-konstantinovich-zhukov пишет про штурм Акабы

Фильм:
caro8680 выкладывает скан нового интервью с Питером О"Тулом в GQ Magazine (июнь 2013)
Ляо Чжай смотрит "Лоуренса Аравийского"

Фандом:
Капитан А. рассказывает про увлечение фильмом
ФБ-команда ТЭЛ отвечает на вопросы ФБ Интервью

Фантворчество:
astridandersson рисует открытку с Лоуренсом
martyplanchais рисует портреты Али акварелью
thisworthierking рисует открытку с цитатой из ТЭЛ

@темы: обзоры

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[tes3m]

Когда-то я писала о солдате Э.Палмере (по прозвищу "Пош"), его отношениях с Э.М.Форстером и о той роли, которую сыграл в этой истории Т.Э.Лоуренс. О дружбе Лоуренса и Палмера я писала тут. Мне бы хотелось увидеть портрет Поша работы Огастеса Джона, о котором так много говорилось в переписке Форстера и Лоуренса, но его местонахождение теперь неизвестно. Я нашла лишь портрет Поша Палмера работы Гилберта Спенсера.

1925 г.
Another Life: Lawrence After Arabia by Andrew Simpson - 2011, p.31.

@темы: окружение ТЭЛ, Clouds Hill

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Отрывок из книги Фреда Д. Кроуфорда "Ричард Олдингтон и Лоуренс Аравийский"

[tes3m]

Отрывок главным образом посвящен попыткам Ричарда Олдингтона выяснить у Лоуэлла Томаса, насколько Т.Э. Лоуренс помог ему в работе над шоу и книгой "С Лоуренсом в Аравии".

     Aldington had not mentioned his TEL research to Williamson until 3 November 1950, more than a year after he had begun. According to Aldington's sources, TEL had disavowed the title "Prince of Mecca," had refused a CB and DSO, and had disposed of a Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre by tossing them into the river, returning them to the French, or tying them around the neck of Hogarth's dog, depending on who was telling the story. The title and honors, however, appeared in TEL's Who's Who entries. Aldington particularly wanted to know whether TEL had compiled his own Who's Who entries or whether someone working for Who's Who had prepared them without TEL. On 22 January 1951, Aldington asked Williamson to act as his intermediary with Who's Who since "Now directly I approach somebody they know it is a biographer and are cagey or busy."'
     Williamson accordingly wrote to A. & C. Black, publisher of Who's Who, on 28 January: "I wonder if you would be so good as to help me in a matter concerning a friend of mine, the late 'T. E. Lawrence' of Arabia. Looking in your Who's Who of 1920, at the Lawrence entry, I wonder if Lawrence himself wrote this? I know that generally the entries are contributed by the subjects themselves — as in the case of my own entry — but could it have occurred that the 1920 T. E. Lawrence entry was supplied by someone other than himself? I would be so grateful if you would be so good as to tell me."* A. & C. Black responded on 31 January: "In reply to your letter received today we have to say that T. E. Lawrence apparently did not himself complete our form for the first entry to appear under his name, in Who's Who 1920. He did however himself amplify the entry for the 1921 edition and frequently modified it in subsequent years either on our annual proof or by personal calls at our office here."' Aldington now had evidence that TEL had edited the Who's Who entries that claimed his ostensibly repudiated honors.
     A second major breakthrough was evidence that TEL had helped to create his own legend. This came from Lowell Thomas, whose 1919 filmshow and 1924 With Laurrence in Arabia had propelled TEL from obscurity to worldwide renown. Aldington had seen Thomas's statement in T.E. Lawrence by His Friends that TEL had helped with the film-show and book. On 20 July 1950, Aldington wrote to Charles Duell of Duell, Sloan & Pearce, then under contract to publish Aldington's TEL book in the United States,

If you are able to talk with the excellent Lowell Thomas, will you ask him the nearest possible or exact date of (i) his first lecture on TEL in USA, and (2) ditto in GB [Great Britain) [?] (3) Does he still have and could he lend us a copy of the sсript of his original lecture? (4) Was he responsible forthe whole film and talk, or did TEL make suggestions? (5) What was his reason for turning the attention of the USA away from the vast, murderous and decisive battles on the Russian and Franco-British fronts in France and Salonika, the Italian, to a side-show like the Arab revolt? (6) May it be hinted that the hitherto unknown author of the famous proverb about backing into the limelight was no other than Shaik Abdiil'owel ibn Thomas? '

     On 16 October 1950, Thomas sent Duell a lengthy response to "one or two of Mr. Aldington's questions." He described the history of the worldfamous film-show "With Allenby in Palestine and Lawrence in Arabia," including the circumstances under which Thomas brought his show to London in 1919 and then took it on a tour of English-speaking countries, where he presented his show some three thousand times."
     Aldington wrote directly to Thomas on 19 October requesting permission to publish the facts from his letter, repeating the question about the film-show sсript, and asking specifically "to what extent did Lawrence cooperate with you?" and whether Thomas had seen any of TEL's "own notes or any part of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom?"' Thomas's response of 8 December revealed more than he may have intended. Answering one of Aldington's questions, Thomas stated,

Yes, Lawrence helped me in every way that I asked — but only to that extent. He never made any suggestions unless I asked for them. He was cooperative about pictures, but no more so than all the other important figures I have dealt with down through the years. His attitude was one of rather normal indifference, combined with amusement. He had none of the irritating false modesty that you sometimes find aniong people who are lens hounds but don't want you to know it. If I asked him for something he seemed to take it for granted that I had a sound reason and let it go at that. It isn't easy to explain just what I mean. But, Lawrence's attitude was what you might call: decidedly British, and that is meant as a hundred percent compliment.

     This supported Aldington's conviction that TEL's reiterated aversion to publicity was merely a pose. Thomas generously added, "It is quite all right to use anything I give you in your book. But, when you have your manuscript in final form I would appreciate it greatly if you would send me a carbon copy. If I am one tenth as important to the narrative as you suggest then I am anxious to help you get everything as near right as possible." Thomas ended his letter by asking, "By the way, how did you happen to get interested in Lawrence, and what is it that you are attempting to do?""
     Aldington replied on 27 December, "I thought Charlie Duell had told you that I am under contract to him and a London publisher [Evans Brothers] to write a life of TEL." He then addressed some of Thomas's responses:

You say L. did not show you any of his notes or any part of Seven Pillars. But passages in your book (e.g. 1st par[agraph] on page 79) are almost verbatim the same as the text of L's Despatches and/or Seven Pillars, which were published long after "With Lawrence in Arabia." I assume that they came to you from the four articles published in The World's Work July-Oct 1921? Don't think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill or in any way doubting your word and TEL's. But so much has been made of these paragraphs with the implication that TE while pretending not to was actually letting you quote from his papers that I want to be able to contradict the story.'

     Aldington wrote to Kershaw on 2 January 1951, "Charlie [Duell] got a very interesting long statement out of Lowell Thomas. It appears that T.E. knew all about the lecture, co-operated freely all through, jeered at scruples about fact, was often present at performances, and was enchanted by the publicity! (Why not? He hadn't realised its dangers then.) It was a film not slides, but the reels have perished in storage — what a loss." (Thomas never realized that the Imperial War Museum had carefully preserved its August 1918 copy of his original rough footage.) On 9 January, Duell conveyed Aldington's thanks to Thomas "for the material you gave me to pass on to him," quoting a paragraph from Aldington "which I think will please and amuse you":

If you and L.T. can't see I'm on his side you're a coupla pie-faced mutts.
Of course I must differ with L.T. over some of his facts and over his opinions and estimates, but I mean to justify his good faith and to prove his decisive influence in TEL's life. L.T. probably doesn't know how the British highbrow fans of TEL have high-hatted him. I am the only writer on TEL who know[s] what a good speaker L.T. is, having heard him not only on the radio often in [the] US, but throughout a most enjoyable evening at the Dutch Treat Club.'

     Aldington wrote to Thomas again, nearly a year later, on 2 August 1951:

It's me again, damn me.
(1) Can you give me the exact or approximate date when you and Mr Chase arrived at Akaba in the tramp steamer? (What a journey that was!)
(2) How long were you with Lawrence in Arabia — exactly or approximately?
(3) Where did you personally go besides Akaba? I ask because T.E.L. in his note on your visit is vague. He mentions, as you do, that he was up country when you arrived, but does not say exactly how long you were there. Surely, with the prejudices of the Bedouin it would have been most dangerous to take you far inland? Or were you able to wangle it?
I know this is a bore. Please excuse on the genuine grounds of anxiety to get facts as near right as possible.

     Thomas, however, did not respond. Aldington commented to Williamson on 14 September 1953, "After I had got some interesting letters from [Thomas], I wrote him point blank: Were you with Lawrence on any of the expeditions you describe? He didn't answer! Of course he wasn't."
     Learning that TEL was the major source of Thomas's narrative had made Aldington wonder how much Graves and Liddell Hart's books owed to TEL, but he did not see copies of T. E. Lawrence to His Biographer Robert Graves or T. E. Lawrence to His Biographer Liddell Hart until April 1951. Aldington learned that despite the published statement in Graves's Lawrence and the Arabs that "my completed manuscript could not be submitted to [TEL] before publication," TEL "read and passed every word" of Graves's biography.' As Aldington wrote to Kershaw on i4 April, TEL "seems to have amused himself by telling Graves incompatible yarns at enormous length on innumerable occasions!" On 18 April, he added that Graves's correspondence with TEL was "very interesting" and "makes TEL to me much more attractive. When he socks RG [Robert Graves] for his damned Laura Riding [sic] highbrowism, I cheer." (The outspoken American intellectual and poet Laura Riding had been Graves's mistress.)
     Aldington had read Liddell Hart's authoritative biography months earlier. He wrote to Kershaw on 29 December 1950,

Since you are in Paris will you go to Librarie Champion (Quai Malaquais) and try to get me any books on the French view of the Arab Revolt.
According to Liddell Hart, Colonel Bremond has published his account, but the shit (Hart) gives no bibliography. Garnett has no mention of Bremond even in his Index. I have never read such sloppy biographies.
There is NO attempt at critical accuracy. And no proper bibliogs. The book recommended so highly by AWL, Victoria Ocampo's 338171 TE. (may I call you 338?) is sentimental bilge of a highly inaccurate nature.

     Letters from TEL to Liddell Hart reinforced Aldington's conviction that Liddell Hart's methods were shoddy, as he wrote to Kershaw on 21 April I95I:

Back here by 11, and settled down to the last slug at Hart's notes on TEL's talk plus unpub[lished] letters and many answers to LH's (mostly idiotic) questions. LH is a really tip-top Brit military historian. His idea of "checking" on the Arab doings was not to consult Turkish records and the reports of Joyce and other independent members but merely to ask TEL — whose propensity for leg pulling did not fade with age. He eventually told LH he had been "asked to take Hankey's place" — only Home Secretary! — provided the Cabinet side were divorced from the C.I.D. [Committee of Imperial Defence].

     Aldington learned that TEL had contributed extensively to Liddell Hart's biography, even writing portions of it. Realizing that TEL had heavily influenced the books by Thomas, Graves, and Liddell Hart, he concluded that the "written record" was no more reliable than TEL.
     Ironically enough, Aldington greeted the first inklings of another breakthrough with considerable skepticism.

Richard Aldington and Lawrence of Arabia: a cautionary tale by Fred D. Crawford, 1998, pp. 23-28.

@темы: окружение ТЭЛ, биография ТЭЛ, черты характера ТЭЛ

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[Milarka-Li]

После долгого молчаливого чтения сообщества решила выйти на свет. Не факт, что я буду активным участником, но хочется внести какой-то скромный вклад в ваше невероятное сообщество.

Не рисовала больше десяти лет, и этот разворот в артбуке - один из первых после перерыва. Фотографию для вдохновения брала из этого поста. Погружение в мир ТЭЛ у меня началось с давней любви к пустыне, через фильм с Файнсом, потом наткнулась на сообщество, прочла "Семь столпов" - и понеслось.

Надеюсь, это не последнее, на что меня вдохновил Лоуренс.

@темы: art

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[Stochastic]

Краткий пересказ изданной в Мюнхене 2010 г. биографии ТЭЛ под названием "Лоуренс Аравийский: человек и его время" профессора Петера Торау.
Главная линия Торау — ТЭЛ стал героем и получил известность исключительно благодаря своему писательскому таланту и шоу Лоуэлла Томаса, на самом деле он был одним из многих офицеров связи, не принимал важных решений и не участвовал в решающих событиях. Особым доверием (а значит, на него больше всего ссылок) пользуется у Торау арабский биограф Лоуренса Сулейман Муса, опросивший в 1960-е годы непосредственных участников событий, много внимания уделяется так же сравнению определенных моментов из Столпов с историческим материалом. Первое, что в "Семи столпах мудрости" подвергается сомнению, это доклад Лоуренса Клейтону об армии Фейсала. По мнению немца, ТЭЛ не мог за недолгое время пребывания в Аравии достаточно изучить арабские методы ведения войны, а сведения почерпнул скорее из книги Колвела 1899 года "Маленькие войны". Торау сомневается в ненависти арабов к туркам и самой идее освободительного движения, подкрепляя свои сомнения словами арабиста Alois Musil: "О любви к родине и религии бедуины не имели ни малейшего представления. И в 1914-1915 племена объединили английские деньги". Tорау подозревает, что идею арабской революции Лоуренс придумал сам, потому что она с одной стороны соответствовала его романтической натуре, с другой позволяла играть на гордости и амбициях шерифа Хуссейна и его сыновей. Главным его инструментом в этой игре, конечно, видят Фейсала, который легко и прочно попал под влияние Лоуренса.
     Далее следуют комичные и нелестные характеристики Лоуренса периода Йенбо - например, от полковника Уилсона. Письмо последнего Клейтону: "Лоуренсу следует дать пинка и основательно, тогда, возможно, он исправится. В настоящий момент я оцениваю его как упрямого молодого осла, который возомнил, что больше всех знает о сирийских арабах, войне, а также лучше всех разбирается в кораблях и машинах. Всем, кто его встречал, он действует на нервы - от адмирала до юнги на всем Красном Море".
     В главе "Человек с золотом" Tорау проходится по описаниям лагеря Абдуллы в Вади Аис, утверждая, что в "Семи столпах мудрости" Лоуренс выставляет Абдуллу в невыгодном свете исключительно потому, что, как рассказал Абдулла в своих мемуарах, арабы плохо встретили Лоуренса. Из мемуаров Абдуллы выходит, что шерифы мелких кланов были возмущены присутствием чужака, и Абдулла, чтобы их успокоить, запретил Лоуренсу свободно разгуливать по лагерю. Естественно, Tорау тут же задается вопросом, понимал ли сам Лоуренс, что арабы к нему всегда относились как к чужаку и терпели его присутствие в основном ради английских денег. Ссылаясь на того же арабского биографа Сулеймана Мусу, Tорау настаивает на том, что свои способности договариваться с арабами, как и роль стратега, Лоуренс сильно преувеличил. Вслед за Сулейманом Мусой, который основывался на свидетельствах участников событий, Tорау не верит в то, что по дороге в Акабу, Лоуренс, как он это описал, предпринял двухнедельную разведку на север, где договорился со многими вождями племен.
     Интересный, на мой взгляд, момент относится к периоду взятия Веджха. Незадолго до похода на Веджх главой британской военной миссии при Фейсале был назначен подполковник Ньюкомб. Майоры Кокс, Викери и капитан Лоуренс обязаны были подчиняться прямым приказам Ньюкомба. На этом официально закончилась работа Лоуренса как офицера связи при Фейсале. Но в день своего прибытия в Веджх Фейсал написал своему отцу шерифу Хусейну письмо с просьбой срочно телеграфировать Клейтону в Каир, что для Фейсала "очень важно, чтобы Лоуренс, который оказал ему очень ценную поддержку, не возвращался в Каир". Так как Клейтон не смел отказать просьбе шерифа Мекки, Лоуренс и дальше оставался офицером связи при Фейсале.
     Примерно в то же время, сразу после Веджха, Ньюкомб и Гарланд получили от шерифа Мекки Хусейна разрешение путешествовать в глубь его владений (прежде этой привилегией обладал только Лоуренс). Первая успешная диверсия на железной дороге была проведенна Гарландом, он же, зная арабский, обучал арабов обращению со взрывчаткой. Гарланд в своих докладах писал, что арабы недисциплинованы, не подчиняются приказам и "своим безмозглым поведением, таким, как пение и переклички вблизи вражеских позиций" постоянно подвергают себя опасности. Тут же приводится нелестный отзыв Лоуренса о Гарланде, в бесседе с Лидделом Гартом Лоуренс якобы охарактеризовал Гарланда как уставшего больного человека, неподходящего для этой работы.
     Что касается договора Сайкса-Пико, который в арабском мире долгое время воспринимали как худшее доказательство империалистической жадности и одновременно образец двойной игры самого скверного пошиба, архивы Форин-офиса показывают, что сам Хусейн не думал о создании на территории своего обширного королевства современного национального государства. Он не только был готов гарантировать британское экономическое влияние на территории своего королевства, но даже считал такое влияние необходимым, рассматривая Англию как защитницу. Что касается того, как и когда Хусейн и его сыновья узнали о договоре Сайкса-Пико, достоверно это выяснить не представляется возможным: либо от сирийских политических кругов Каира в октябре 1916, либо это случилось так, как пишет Лоуренс в Семи столпах: он рассказал Фейсалу о секретном договоре в феврале 1917 года, когда возникла необходимость противодействовать французским планам захвата Акабы. Так или иначе, уже в мае 1917 года Хусейн и его сыновья встречались, чтобы обсудить договор.
     Еще важное про политическую ситуацию в Аравии: обсуждение начавшегося арабского восстания в каирской газете "Аль-Ахрам", согласно которому призывы шерифа Мекки не имели никакого отношения к арабскому национальному самосознанию, а вызваны были лишь желанием заменить власть османов своей властью. Случаи дезертирства из турецкой армии не были такими частыми и массовыми, как может показаться по "Столпам". Наоборот, когда в декабре 1916 британцы предложили 19 пленным турецким офицерам и 2100 солдатам перейти на сторону шерифа и тем самым избежать военнного плена, только 6 офицеров и 27 солдат согласились. Таким образом, заключает Tорау, клан хашимитов тоже продавал британцам воздушные замки и старательно увеличивал свое значение в их глазах, добиваясь британской поддержки. Последнее объясняет, почему шерифы, несмотря на знание о договоре Сайкса-Пико, продолжали ради собственной выгоды поддерживать британцев. И, естественно, все эти взаимовыгодные уступки в большей или меньшей степени не могли не быть известны Лоуренсу. У биографа возникает вопрос — почему, зная все эти детали, Лоуренс пишет о таких сильных муках совести по поводу того, что арабы были обмануты?
     Приблизительно к этому же периоду относится письмо Фейсала, в котором он требовал, чтобы Лоуренс, находившийся в лагере Абдуллы и планировавший диверсию на железной дороге, срочно вернулся, потому что им нужно многое обсудить. Лоуренс нигде не упоминает это происшествие, но, опираясь на доклады Ньюкомба того времени, немец предполагает, что срочное дело Фейсала касалось слухов о высадке французов в Сирии. Должно быть, Фейсал опасался, что если французы займут Сирию, хашимиты лишатся английской поддержки. Кроме того, Фейсал мог быть угнетен поражением Мюррея в Газе.
     Что касается судьбоносных решений, то, согласно Tорау, во-первых, идея диверсий на железной дороге принадлежала не Лоуренсу, а его английскому руководству, во-вторых, идея похода на Акабу — часть грандиозного и невыполнимого плана Фейсала по завоеванию Сирии. По мнению Tорау, под влиянием Лоуренса и под впечатлением от поражения англичан в Газа, Фейсала серьезно занесло, и он переоценил свои силы.
      Tорау видит главную заслугу Лоуренса в том, что он первым принес в Каир весть о взятии Акабы, при этом красочно расписав свое участие, а так же разведки в Сирию, которых не было. Кстати, Лоуренс именно потому получил за взятие Акабы орден Бани, а не крест Виктории, что для получения одной из самых значимых военных наград необходимо было, чтобы подвиг засвидетельствовал еще один британский офицер, очевидец.
      Tорау настаивает на том, что никто и никогда не назначал награду за голову Лоуренса, более того, самые высокие чины немецкой и турецкой армии даже после войны не знали о существовании Лоуренса.
     Про акцию на реке Ярмук Tорау пишет, что не существует ни одного официального документа, подтверждающего, что Алленби просил Лоуренса о поддержке или совместных действиях, как это представлено в "Столпах". Сулейман Муса, который имел возможность расспросить свидетелей, сообщает, что на реке Ярмук и вовсе не было ничего настолько важного и эпического, как это изображено в "Столпах", а просто Лоуренс с двадцатью арабами хотел заминировать мост, но был обстрелян турками и бежал. Вообще об акциях на железной дороге немец высказывается скептично, подчеркивая, что нет доказательств того, что Лоуренс якобы взорвал семьдесят мостов, в то время как военные архивы признают самой успешной операцией на хиджазской железной дороге операцию Ньюкомба, когда он уничтожил несколько километров рельсов около Медины.
     Эпизод в Дераа Tорау рассматривает как литературный вымысел. Кроме общеизвестных свидетельств (письмо Лоуренса к матери, письмо к Шарлоте Шоу и признание в разговоре с Р.Майнерцхагеном) автор приводит результаты электростатического анализа дневника Лоуренса, которые подтверждают письмо Лоуренса к матери о том, что 19 ноября он был в Азраке, а значит, не мог находиться в Дераа с 15 по 21 ноября, как он утверждал позднее.
     В битве при Тафиле, как мы помним из "Семи столпов мудрости", Лоуренс продемонстрировал талант полководца. В докладе Клейтону сразу после битвы Лоуренс описывает себя не как полководца, а как советника. Годами позже, отвечая на вопрос издателя официальной британской военной истории, Лоуренс сообщает, что при Тафиле он "целый день только наблюдал". Резня в Тафазе: сразу после боя Лоуренс доложил в Каир, что "мы" приказали не брать пленных, а в "Столпах" приукрасил этот момент: "Я приказал не брать пленных". Tорау предполагает, что решение принадлежало Ауде абу Тайи, а уже позднее Лоуренс переделал эпизод в соответствии со своими ребячливыми представлениями о войне. Торау настаивает на том, что Лоуренс якобы испытывал детский восторг, наблюдая за жестокостью арабов.
     Взятие Дамаска Tорау и вовсе называет узурпированным триумфом, намекая на то, что Фейсал не имел права торжественно въезжать в город. Далее начинается милая моему сердцу песня, потому что даже этот скептик Tорау не отрицает особого влияния Лоуренса на Фейсала. Совершенно милая сцена в Дамаске 3 октября, когда Алленби вызвал Фейсала в отель Виктория, а Лоуренс пришел как переводчик. Поудивлявшись, зачем Фейсалу переводчик, Алленби решил освежить в памяти Фейсала прошлые договоренности - Сирия отойдет французам, Ливан и Палестина попадут под контроль Франции. И тут Фейсал и Лоуренс показали удивительную слаженность действий: Фейсал воспротивился французской власти, а Лоуренс, когда его напрямую спросили, объяснил ли он Фейсалу, как ему было приказано, что Фейсал не смеет претендовать на Ливан, ушел в глухой отказ: "Нет, сэр, об этом я ничего не знал". То есть оба сделали вид, что ничего не знают ни о каких договоренностях и условиях, несмотря на то, что, как утверждает Tорау, оба были в курсе.
     Развинчивая миф о Лоуренсе как о военном герое, Tорау довольно трогательно, на мой взгляд, пишет о нем как о человеке, увязшем в конфликте интересов. Начиная с разговора с Алленби 3 октября, когда Лоуренс первый раз официально поддерживает претензии Фейсала, и заканчивая его дипломатической деятельностью в британском министерстве по колониям на Ближнем Востоке, все строится на противоречивых попытках Лоуренса, сохраняя верность своей стране, защищать интересы арабов. Tорау не берется судить о реальной политической роли Лоуренса на мирной конференции и упоминает лишь о том, что историю, будто Лоуренс зачитывал речь Фейсала, в то время когда принц цитировал Коран, придумал Лайонел Кертис. По поводу отношений с Фейсалом Tорау приводит выдержки из дневника Мохаммеда Хайдара (Haidar), одного из советников Фейсала, по которым видно, как арабы постепенно разочаровывались в Лоуренсе. 15 апреля: "Правда в том, что он много работает на благо арабов. Вчера он сказал эмиру Фейсалу, что англичане не понимают, что происходит: "Я (Лоуренс) беру лист бумаги, пишу что-то на нем, а они ставят печать и исполняют". 16 апреля Хайдар высказывает опасение насчет проиудейской политики Лоуренса: "Эмир говорил с ним о конференции. Фейсал слепо доверяет Лоуренсу. На самом деле Лоуренс только инструмент в руках влиятельных людей. В иудейском вопросе он следует их политической линии, которая полностью отвечает интересам Великобритании, несмотря на то, что его сердце принадлежит Фейсалу. Лоуренс добавил, что личные чувства не имеют никакого отношения к политике". И 21 апреля дневник Хайдара: "Мистер Лоуренс прежде всего англичанин. Я сомневаюсь в искренности этого юного англичанина". Ах, да, 15 апреля Хайдар также пишет: "Я еще никогда не видел человека, который бы, как Лоуренс, всегда улыбался".
     Внутренний конфликт интересов у Лоуренса усиливался по мере того, как укреплялись договоренности между Англией и Францией. Если раньше Лоуренс высказывал неприязнь к французам и свое желание сделать Фейсала королем Сирии официально оправдывал тем, что в интересах Англии стремится ограничить влияние французов на Востоке (такой маневр позволял ему хоть как-то усидеть на двух стульях и продолжать служить двум хозяевам), то после Сан-Ремо Лоуренс был нужен британской делегации только для того, чтобы, используя все свое влияние, уговорить Фейсала принять новые договоренности Англии и Франции. Решение о переделе бывших турецких провинций было принято, и Лоуренс фактически поставлен перед выбором — поддержать Англию или продолжать и дальше упорствовать в своем желании сделать Фейсала королем Сирии, причем последнее само собой вело к ухудшению отношений с лордом Керзоном. Лоуренс продолжал настаивать, обратился к прессе и в итоге был исключен из состава британской делегации.
     Итак, согласно Tорау, переоценив собственные силы, Лоуренс в Париже потерпел поражение по всем фронтам, потеряв доверие и арабов, и английских дипломатов. Тут же приводится отрывок из позднего письма матери Лоуренса его издателю о том, что, вернувшись домой после парижской конференции, Лоуренс целыми днями сидел без движения и смотрел в одну точку. Следует отдать немцу должное, дальнейшее повествование строится на противопоставлениях и очень увлекательно. В те же дни, когда Лоуренс дома погружался в депрессию, потерпев крах на конференции, в Лондоне состоялась премьера шоу Лоуэлла Томаса. К шоу Tорау подходит с привычным скептицизмом. Война на Востоке до выхода шоу мало освещалась в европейской прессе и упоминалась как малозначительный эпизод. Насколько активно Лоуренс влиял на создание шоу? Он встречался с Лоуэллом Томасом в Иерусалиме и в Акабе, охотно позировал перед камерой и рассказывал военные байки. Но после выхода шоу Лоуренс возмутился, что его роль преувеличили и забыли упомянуть других важных действуюших лиц. Посмеялся над титулами, которыми его наградили журналисты, но при этом не возражал, чтобы эти самые титулы вписали в его биографию в справочнике "Кто есть кто?", вышедшем в 1921 году. Тем не менее, Tорау связывает выход шоу и сопутствующую ему известность с дальнейшими личными проблемами Лоуренса, склоняясь к версии, что слава лишила Лоуренса возможности нормально жить после войны.
     Следующий раздел посвящен деятельности Лоуренса в министерстве колоний при Черчилле. Пожалуй, единственный реальный исторический успех Лоуренса Tорау видит в урегулировании кризиса на Востоке. Он признает Лоуренса автором семи пунктов антикризисного плана, провозглашенного на Каирской конференции. Чтобы успокоить народные волнения в Ираке, англичане по совету Лоуренса сажают на трон в Ираке послушного и удобного им короля — Фейсала. Отношения Лоуренса и Фейсала, как в целом отношения с арабами, портятся окончательно: сперва в Лондоне Фейсал возмущается, что с ним обращаются как с марионеткой, позднее после коронации называет Лоуренса "искателем приключений и мошенником". Абдулле, задумавшему военный поход на Сирию, предлагают Трансиорданию. Абдулла пытается высказаться против создания еврейского государства в Палестине и переселения арабов из тех областей, но его заставляют замолчать угрозами. В завершение Лоуренса отправили в Джиду уговорить Хуссейна шерифа Мекки подписать Каирское соглашение. Действовал Лоуренс главным образом методом кнута (угрожал лишить Хусейна поддержки Англии в его разборках с эмиром Неджа) и пряника (обещал ежегодные субсидии). Безрезультатные переговоры длились два месяца и отмечены комично-истеричным случаем — в один из дней, когда Лоуренс пришел к Хусейну, старый шериф угрожал выброситься из окна, на что Лоуренс спокойно ответил: "Ваше величество, знает, что здесь четвертый этаж. Скорей всего, ваше величество не переживет падения".
     Что касается послевоенного периода, пожалуй, упомяну только последнюю встречу с Фейсалом в Лондоне в 1925. Сразу стоит заметить, что послевоенного Лоуренса Tорау описывает как довольно депрессивного человека. Согласно Tорау, незадолго до приезда Фейсала в конце сентября Лоуренс пережил нервный срыв в мае 1925: угрожал застрелиться в кабинете Тренчарда, если его не возьмут служить в Air Force. И, по свидетельству Джона Брюса, тогда же пытался застрелиться в саду своего дома в Клаудс Хилл. По мнению Tорау, не последнюю роль в этом срыве сыграл выход книги Лоуэлла Томаса "С Лоуренсом в Аравии". В августе Лоуренс возвращается на службу и, кажется, приходит в себя. Но встреча с Фейсалом в конце сентября провоцирует новый срыв. После совместного обеда у лорда Эдварда Уинтертона (Winterton) Лоуренс пишет Шарлоте Шоу, что ему было очень неприятно сидеть в солдатской униформе за столом и говорить про добрые старые времена: "Я изменился, и Лоуренс, с которым эти люди дружили и которому доверяли, мертв. Он больше чем мертв. Он чужак, которого я однажды знал".
     О сексуальной ориентации Лоуренса Tорау высказывается с немецким прагматизмом: так как гомосексуальность длительное время во многих странах осуждалась и даже была наказуема, биографы Лоуренса искали опровержения или доказательства его гомосексуальности в зависимости от симпатии или антипатии к нему, а сам Лоуренс никогда не опровергал и не подтверждал свою гомосексуальную ориентацию*. Насчет мазохизма — Tорау считает, что, учитывая описание сцены в Дераа с изнасилованием в варианте оксфордского текста, где упоминается "сексуальное тепло", которое он испытал после избиения, разумно предположить, что порки имели сексуальный характер.
     На мой взгляд, в книге имеется еще несколько трогательных моментов. Последние фотографии Лоуренса, на которых он якобы выглядит менее изможденным, прибавившим в весе, позволили Tорау предположить, что после ухода со службы в 1935, то есть в последние месяцы жизни ТЭЛ будто бы нашел душевное равновесие и покой, чего я не вижу по его последним письмам.

*Против этого утверждения немца имеем запись в дневнике Кэтлин Скотт "Лоуренс признал свои склонности, но сказал, что они не оказали пагубного влияния на его жизнь" (отсюда).

Peter Thorau. Lawrence von Arabien:Ein Mann und seine Zeit. C.H.Beck, 2010.

@темы: Дераа, политика, биография ТЭЛ, Аравия, Фейсал

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Потянуло на стихи...

[FleetinG_]

... к счастью, не на мои Просто меня дернуло полезть в письма биографам, а там Грейвс приводит стихи Лоуренса про Клаудс-Хилл - такие ужасно клаудсхилловские, причем в Сети их нет

Diversions


“That little beast is playing Bach!”-
He said, trying to find the beans
Amid the wreckage of an early feast.
“Posh! – this is too much – give me the toast
And make some tea”.
They moved like some khaki ghosts
About the house,
While Harry thought of staff-parades,
Duty divinely dodged.
Presently I found the “Westminster”
Sitting upon the floor
In green, commercial state –
A columned, print-stained page bearing
The exuberance of Tomlinson,
Who chattered paragraphically
Of limited editions.
And then I laughed because
I knew he meant Sassoon.
And then we spoke of Forster
And something in the “Calendar” –
Advising decent citizens to beware Sydney Leer.
“This book is dead” – it went.
I laughed, imaging E.M.
Choking with resentment
Penning this review.

по мере сил - перевод

, хотя не вся матчасть мне понятна
Развлечения

«Эта маленькая скотина играет Баха!» -
Сказал он, пытаясь найти бобы
Среди остатков раннего пира.
«Пош! – хватит уже – дай мне тост
И приготовь чаю».
Они двигались, как некие призраки в хаки
По дому,
А тем временем Гарри думал о штабных парадах,
Обязанности, божественно заброшенной.
И вот я нашел «Вестминстер»
Лежащий на полу,
Зеленый и деловой –
Страница с колонками, запятнанная типографской краской, содержащая
Избыток Томлинсона,
Который по пунктам болтал
Об ограниченных изданиях.
И тогда я засмеялся, потому что
Я знал, что он имел в виду Сассуна.
А потом мы говорили о Форстере
И как где-то в «Календаре»
Он советовал приличным гражданам остерегаться Сидни Лира.
«Эта книга мертва» - говорилось там.
Я смеялся, представляя Э.М.,
Как он задыхается от негодования,
Когда пишет эту рецензию.


Заодно положу сюда же те стихи Лоуренса про секс взаимоотношения летчиков с воздушной стихией, что находятся в сборнике писем, а то не у всех же он есть, и в Сети их не видно, как и первых. Как сказано тут (вот, по ходу занятная ссылка нашлась), они могли бы играть роль эпиграфа к ненаписанной книге "Исповедание веры", как посвящение С.А.

Confession of Faith


Not the conquest of the air, but our entry thither.
We come.
Our soiled overalls were the livery of that sunrise. The soilings of our bodies in its service were prismatic with its light. Moody or broody. From ground to air. First we are not earthbound.

In speed we hurl outselves beyond the body.
Our bodies cannot scale the heavens except in a fume of petrol.
The concentration of our bodies in entering a loop. Bones, blood, flesh all pressed inward together.
Not the conquest of the air. Be plain, guts.
In speed we hurl outselves beyond the body.

We enter it. We come.
Our bodies cannot scale the heavens except in a fume of burnt petrol.
As lords that are expected. Yet there is a silent joy in our arrival.
Years and years.
Long arpeggios of chafing wires.
The concentration of our bodies in entering a loop.

тоже, по мере сил, перевод

Исповедание веры

Не завоевание воздуха, но наше вступление туда.
Мы входим*.
Наши грязные комбинезоны были ливреей этого рассвета. Грязь на наших телах в их службе призмами отражает его свет. Мрачные или угрюмые. С земли в воздух. Впервые мы не прикованы к земле.

На скорости мы бросаем себя за пределы тела.
Наши тела могут взбираться к небу лишь в дыму керосина.
Концентрация наших тел, входящих в мертвую петлю. Кости, кровь, плоть – все сжимается внутри.
Не завоевание воздуха. Будь простым, мужество**.
На скорости мы бросаем себя за пределы тела.

Мы вступаем туда. Мы входим.
Наши тела могут взбираться к небу лишь в дыму горящего керосина.
Как хозяева, которых ждут. Но есть безмолвная радость в нашем прибытии.
Годы и годы.
Долгие арпеджио трущихся проводов.
Концентрация наших тел, входящих в мертвую петлю.

* надеюсь, все присутствующие понимают, что come можно еще воспринимать и как достижение оргазма - нарочно автор это делает или нет, но судя по тому, что в Эксбридже был непристойный вариант песни со словами we are coming, как минимум он в курсе этого факта
** guts – и внутренности, и храбрость (в том смысле, что кишка не тонка), и даже детали мотора, уж не знаю, что он имел в виду

Мне прямо жаль, что Лоуренс не продолжал это дело.

В качестве бонуса - забавный стишок Хогарта про Арабское Бюро, который попался мне во французском источнике, но он как раз в Сети имеется, и у Сторрса, и у Корды:

Do you know
The Arab Bureau?

Do you know
The Arab Bureau:
Clayton stability,
Symes versatility,
Cornwallis is practical,
Dawnay syntactical,
Mackintosh havers
And Fielding palavers,
Macindoe easy
And Wordie not breezy,
Lawrence licentiate to dream and to dare
And yours very faithfully, bon a tout faire.

перевод

Вы знаете Арабское бюро? Клейтон – стабильность, Саймс (sic, но, может быть, это Сайкс? на портрет в "Семи столпах" это похоже) – разносторонность, Корнуоллис практичен, Доуни синтаксический (не знаю, что это значит, на французский перевели как "пурист" граммарнаци, ага), Макинтош говорит глупости, а Филдинг осыпает лестью, у Макиндоу легкий характер, а в Уорди нет ветрености, Лоуренс - специалист по мечтам и дерзаниям, а ваш покорный слуга – прислуга за все. (Французский автор перевел последнюю фразу в женском роде - la bonne a tout faire, как и положено по правилам грамматики )
(Цитируется по Orientations Сторрса, стр.179. Интересно, а куда девали самого Сторрса?)

@темы: окружение ТЭЛ, Clouds Hill, юмор, литература, быт и нравы эпохи