Seven Pillars of Wisdom

By: T. E. Lawrence

Narrated by: James Wilby

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Lawrence of Arabia's seminal work charts his time with British Military Intelligence in the Levantine territories, during the wars with the Turks. The manuscript is candid and action-packed (and was entirely re-written after Lawrence lost the original manuscript whilst changing trains).

©2007 CSA Word (P)2007 CSA Word

Critic reviews

"This is a masterful recording of the memoirs of the man better known as Lawrence of Arabia." ( Financial Times)

Stop the music

While the story was interesting and the reading wonderful theistic between each chapter was maddening.

I would suggest the written format for this story.

Decent, but not great

This book was fairly interesting, but I did find myself daydreaming and missing parts at times.. It is definitely an older writing style, and doesn't grab my attention as much as some modern works do. The main reason I'm writing a review however is because I am displeased with the amount of repetitive music that is played during the audio book. At the end of some chapters there is close to 3 minutes of music! I don't see any point to this, and I would prefer that it goes right into the next chapter after a short pause (like most books). The narration was fairly good, and it's a very interesting war story. A little too much homosexuality for my taste, but that's how the book is. It wasn't too over-done, just more than I would have preferred.

A Classic story

Where does Seven Pillars of Wisdom rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I would say that this story ranks high but the music insertions at the end of every chapter were a pain!

Which character – as performed by James Wilby – was your favorite?

James Wilby did a fine job reading this.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It was a good car companion though

Any additional comments?

Whoever published this inserted a long music que (I think it is from Massenet -Thais?) Anyway, the chapters of this book are very short (5 -10 min at most) and at every chapter there is this minutes long music que!! And you can't get past it. It REALLY took away from the experience. I can see one at the beginning and end, but EVERY chapter? Sometimes the music would do a long fade in under the last words of a chapter and was totally incongruous with what was being said. If they publish this again, please take the music out between chapters. Other than that, it was a great true story of one of the most intriguing historical figures of the 20th century.

Beautiful Book

The Film "Lawrence of Arabia" was clearly based on this memoir. There were some gratuitous departures of the film from the book. They were all mistakes, the book's account is better. Lawrence had a unique experience and was a brilliant storyteller. He was clearly a bit racist, but it was a different time. He was enthralled with the Arabs, but largely contemptuous of the Turks.

Excellent

I enjoyed this book and recommend this purchase. Anyone with an interest in history or who is working / living in the Middle East should consider buying it.

The narration was first class and takes you to the wadi's, the heat and the horror of the war in the middle east during WW1. The book itself is touching and fascinating and gives you an insight into male Arab ways, I only wish I had read this before I lived in the Middle east.

Surpisingly Good Writing

I bought this book because of my interest in the Middle East; I thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of an odd character like Lawrence. I was surprised, though, to find that his writing was actually quite good. The narrative is a bit confusing at times, but the writing itself and the sensations he conveys are definitely worth the download.