After an extended passage from a diary, he will chip in a line or two of snark or sarcasm - like a congenial wink from the director to the audience: Don't we both know better than those guys on stage?įor, despite the humor, it's tough at times to avoid the book's kinship to drama - namely, ancient tragedy. Though Hansen clearly feels affection for his subjects, he also feels no hesitation in slyly poking fun at their foibles (and no one more so than von Haven). Though Hansen clearly feels affection for his subjects, he also feels no hesitation in slyly poking fun at their foibles.Īt the same time, he keeps his sense of humor about it. It was to be a testament to humankind's capacity to make sense of the worldly and holy at once, by gratifying "simultaneously two of the greatest obsessions of the age - the great interest in science, and the enthusiasm for foreign and particularly Oriental lands." This quest to uncover the empirical truths behind the Bible in Arabia Felix - "Happy Arabia," or Yemen, as it's known today - was to be King Frederick V's chance to make his own splash in the era of the Enlightenment. Yet at the outset of the actual trip, in 1761, the Danish financiers behind it could scarcely have had higher hopes. What's more, Hansen notes: "Today, two hundred years after their expedition, they are almost completely forgotten." But almost from the very beginning, it is unmistakably firm on one point: Just about every one of the bright young scholars who undertake the ambitious scientific expedition at the heart of the book is going to die. The book - first published by Danish novelist Thorkild Hansen in 1962, later translated into English by James and Kathleen McFarlane, and now out in a new edition - flirts with the ambiguous boundaries between history, fiction and travelogue. That much is clear from the outset in Arabia Felix.
Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Arabia Felix Subtitle The Danish Expedition of 1761-1767 Author Thorkild Hansen
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