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The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt | 
 enlarge | Author: Isabelle Eberhardt
Creators: Liz Kershaw, Annette Kobak, Nina De Voogd
Publisher: Interlink Books
Category: Book
List Price: $12.95
Buy Used: $6.75
You Save: $6.20 (48%)
New (23) Used (8) from $6.75
Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 387402
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.6
ISBN: 1566565081
Dewey Decimal Number: 961.03092
EAN: 9781566565080
ASIN: 1566565081
Publication Date: April 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: As pictured. Very light wear to covers, unmarked pages, well bound. Very nice. Ships first class, packaged with care.
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Product Description
In her short life Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) came to be known as the ultimate enigma and representative of everything that seemed dangerous in nineteenth century society. Born the illegitimate daughter of an aristocratic Russian emigree she was a cross-dresser and sensualist, an experienced drug-taker and a transgressor of boundaries: a European reborn in the desert as an Arab and Muslim, a woman who reinvented herself as a man, wandering the Sahara on horseback. A profoundly lonely individual for all her numerous sexual adventures, she roused controversy and was loved and hated in equal measure. A mysterious attempt was made on her life and even her eventual death was ambiguous: she drowned in the desert at the age of twenty-seven.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 An amazing life, a one-of-a-kind diary May 28, 2004
M. Bromberg (Atlanta, GA United States)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The unusual life and bizarre death of Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) remains a mystery. Dressing as a man, she traveled through Saharan Africa and drowned -- in the desert -- at age 27, which only emphasizes the uniqueness of the written record she left behind. Unlike the works of other desert adventurers such as Sir Richard Burton and T. E. Lawrence, Eberhardt's diary never clarifies why she endured these hardships, or why her life was such a complex tangle that there was an attempt on her life shortly before she drowned. Her unsettling story of gender deception, unaccompanied travel in Islamic society, and unresolved death is so far out of cultural norms that her story is seldom told, and makes this diary all the more intriguing.
 Vivid writing - difficult life July 25, 2006
Kathleen Ireland (Boulder, CO)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a book I remembered for 30 years and went back one day recently to find. I was not disappointed although I can see why this book appealed to me so strongly as a 20 year old. Isabelle is an amazing writer. Like the writers of haiku, Isabelle captures the beauty of the desert around her and her feelings about her life in so few words and yet so beautifully. Her love of her adopted country and religion season her view and experience of life. One might wish she had had a happier time of it or been a little better at making a living, but overall this brief book is an amazing contribution to the world by a very unusual person. I highly recommend it.
A beutiful writer that is sadly little known April 16, 2007
Gogol (England)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is such a pity that Isabelle Eberhadt is so little known because there is something about her that can be found in all of us.
She was a free thinking, independent woman at a time when it was hardly the thing to do. She converted to Islam by her own free will but remained her own person, she did not conform to an image of what Islam should be or what others thought it should be nor did she just convert and then melt into the mass of her fellow co-religionists.
She maintained much of her anarchist upbringing and lead a life that was free from and restraints. She endered the Qadiri Sufi order and seemed to have taken the order seriously practicing the prayers that she was ordered to perform.
She travelled deep into Algeria and wrote of the land and its people with a style that reflects her own free spirit. She would not be confined by anyone and perhaps it was that which brought about an attempt on her life and the anger of the colonial powers who ruled Algeria.
She lead a lonely life but seemed to have had several partners. Her life was full of contradictions and this book, her diaries reflects all of that. The life of a young woman who would not be restrained neither by the times that she lived in, the culture that she was from nor the religion that she had chosen to convert to. This book captures the wild mystery of a life that was lived both in the deserts of Africa and amongst the cities of Europe.
A beutiful book recomended to anyone who still has the spirit of travel or the love of the writings of someone who chose to life life as they wished to live it.
 Something creepy this way comes January 20, 2004
2 out of 25 found this review helpful
I can't put my finger on it but there was something about Isabelle Eberhardt that just made my skin crawl. I didn't like her as a person and never really got to care about her or what happened to her. It's strange because normally I love this kind of book about unconventional women living outside of society's expected norms for them, but this woman, I just did not like!
Don't bother December 20, 2007
EricaT (Maumee, oh United States)
I expected to really enjoy this book as I found the subject fascinating and new to me. Unfortunately, the stilted writing and the lack of substance made it unreadable. I think a book about this woman's life with quotes interjected would be more interesting than this rambling collection of thoughts. I'm very disappointed.
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