Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

We live in an age of celebrity as created by an immense media industry. Lawrence of Arabia embodied the word celebrity; in fact he may have been the 20th century's first real celebrity as Lindberg came after him. This book cries out to be read by a readership that understands that heroes do in fact exist. This word hero has been much misused in modern day America to apply to people that the word was never intended for. Lawrence was very much a hero, as well as many other things. He was a military genius on a level with Napoleon. He also possessed a genius for guerilla warfare and his techniques are taught at West Point as we speak. Possessing a talent for writing, his Seven Pillars of Wisdom is considered a literary masterpiece. His direct actions changed the entire map of the Middle East, and the inability of politicians to adjust to the realities of this region that Lawrence saw so vividly have led to the chaos that we see in the Middle East today. Sheikh Hamoud had it right when he wrote so many years ago of Lawrence: My heart was iron, but his was steel If you love great, gifted, writing on an immense topic describing a man that truly impacted and changed the world that he saw, than Michael Korda's biography of Lawrence of Arabia is for you. This is a 700 page narrative before footnotes and biography. The quality of the paper used in the book is fabulous, and this is due to Korda's lifetime in the publishing industry. The selection of the font and the feel of the book left nothing to chance. Korda thought through every aspect of this project and brought it off with flair, and panache. He is a master storyteller and he has demonstrated considerable scholarship in creating this page turner which is so sweeping in scope covering one of the giants of the 20th century. Here are just a few of the things you will learn about Lawrence of Arabia: * In his early 30's he translated Homer's The Odyssey which then became accepted as the classic account of Homer's work. * Why King George on Lawrence's untimely death in 1935 said his name will live in history? * He possessed a dazzling display of knowledge, almost Einstein like in the topics he could converse in. Lawrence never did anything halfway. If he was in, he was in all the way. * As a young man, an illegitimate son, along with 4 other brothers, he managed to do amazing things at Oxford. He studied and more importantly absorbed the works of every great military tactician including Admiral Mahan, and Creasy's 15 Decisive Battles of the World. Lawrence's own thesis, The Influence of the Crusades on European Military Architecture was recognized as an act of genius when he presented it. * Liddell Hart considered to be one of the truly eminent military writers of the 20th century compared Lawrence to Napoleon, and used the term Napoleon coined "le coup doeil de genie" which means quick glance of genius. What this describes is that Lawrence had the scarce ability to look at a map (remember he was also a master mapmaker) and immediately know where to attack based on a unique ability in a glance to know intuitively how to attack. This is still studied at West Point, and is very rare in generals throughout history. * If you want to know the depth of his influence on all who came after him, than consider this. Mao Zedong led a revolution in China based on his writings and theories. Ho Chi Minh forced the United States out of Viet Nam based on Lawrence's theories of guerilla war. I haven't even mentioned Castro and Che in Cuba using Lawrence as a blueprint for winning in Cuba. Lawrence is the original creator of the road side bomb we now see in Iraq and Afghanistan. He knew how to strike light, and disappear into the night. The term turn weakness into strength is his. * The story of the making of the David Lean movie, Lawrence of Arabia which was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, and won 7 is told here in a beautiful fashion. Only Sam Spiegel, the producer at Columbia Pictures could have gotten this movie done. You will learn how the part was first offered to Leslie Howard, Lawrence Olivier, and then Albert Finney, until settling on newcomer Peter O'Toole. In conclusion, if you love history and the grand expanse of extraordinary people doing extraordinary things then you are going to love this book. Lawrence was Hollywood handsome with a magnetic personality and charisma to match. His influence directly led to the creation of the modern Jordan, and the UAR (United Arab Republic). Iraq and Syria now owe their modern boundaries to Lawrence. Since the 1960's England has opened up its secret historical files on Lawrence. We now know that all the wild stories about Lawrence are true. It actually comes down to this. Lawrence did what he said he did, and even downplayed his own role in the affairs of which we know about. I promise you that if you begin reading this book, you will not put it down, and you will be transfixed by what a gifted writer like Korda can do with a legendary impactful figure like Lawrence of Arabia. Thank you for reading this review. Richard C. Stoyeck

I enjoy reading about T.E. Lawrence and his fascinating life. I've read most of the older and current bios on Lawrence and Michael Korda's "Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia" is one of the best so far. Korda does a great job of interweaving Lawrence's family history, his experiences in the desert and how his youth shaped his future fame. The first part of the book seems to bounce around as we move from Lawrence's father in Ireland to Lawrence's assault on Aquba. However, once Korda follows Lawrence's past in a chronological order, the book really seems to flow well. We all can agree Lawrence is a fascinating, and often misrepresented historical figure. Korda's work explains both sides of the story, often referencing claims made by other biographers and actual correspondence between Lawrence and his literary friends of that time. The reader witnesses first hand decisions made in the early 1900's which still have major impacts on our lives today...and Lawrence was involved in many of this formative history of the Middle East. As a biography, Korda's book is one of the best ones I've read on T.E. Lawrence and I would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating historical figure. My only reason from not giving it five stars is due to the numerous typographical errors in the Kindle version of the book. It seems there are spacing issues, words running together and misspellings on every other page flip on the Kindle version. I am not sure if this is simply some issue with the Kindle version so I cannot comment on the accuracy of the book print. Such an outstanding look at Lawrence's life deserves a better effort for the Kindle version.

The title HERO references Michael Korda's contention that T. E. Lawrence (T. E. Shaw, Lawrence of Arabia) wanted to become a hero and had the opportunity to become one and succeeded beyond his expectations. Thus he became one of the 20th Centuries first "celebrities" mostly due to the promotion of Lowell Thomas's highly successful lectures, films and book. Korda maintains that Lawrence was the Princes Diana of his time. (This comparison being a good way to provide today's reader with an idea of the impact Lawrence had on the media culture of his own time.) Despite the book being a bit uneven I found HERO a wonderful read. The first part through page 114 is a rather dry telling of Lawrence's major accomplishment in World War One. It covers Lawrence's meeting with Prince Feisal the background of the Arab revolt against the Turks and the Arab taking the port city of Aqaba. (The actual events are significantly different than shown in the great David Lean film.) This early flashback section contains important information and sets the tone for what follows but I doubt many will find it to be page turning reading. But keep going and don't give up. Because then the book takes off and is quite an enjoyable ride as Korda goes back in time to Lawrence's childhood, family, education (at Oxford), and his interest in archeology, the middle east, and crusader castles. Korda frames all this so we can see how Lawrence swept himself along with heroic self images (and many self doubts). As if Lawrence knew he was preparing himself for something big for he became one of a few who understood the Middle East. (In fact after the war Lawrence had Middle East solutions that if implemented may have minimized many of the events we see today.) Korda narrative provides an interesting analysis as he often presents the conflicting views about controversial observations of Lawrence by prior biographers and Lawrence's contemporaries. Lawrence was not a loner as many think, but a people person (and to a certain degree a people user) who had many friends and developed vital relationships. This he did through an uncanny ability to change his own personality and stories to suite that of his listener thus providing different views of his personality thus providing history with the fuel that formed the enigma that is the Lawrence legend. I especially liked the fact the Korda spent a lot of time covering the creative side of Lawrence's character. How he wrote and rewrote SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM and went about publishing it. This and many post war events are most interestingly told by Korda. For the most part Korda explains away the controversial questions about Lawrence as being nothing more than media hype. Taking things out of context and making more of normal human reactions than they deserve. Yet we see the influences on what may have created the real, human and complex person Lawrence was. His short stature although he did not appear to have the stereotypical short man complex. At 5 foot 5 inches Lawrence was very thin mostly around 130 pounds, but at one point in the war he was down to 88 pounds. He was illegitimate (a big negative in the class structure of the country in the early 1900s). His mother was extremely religious and his father walked away from title, property, and a family (a wife and four daughters) to run away with Lawrence's mother. Korda provides the reader more with emphasis and credence on Lawrence's relationship and feelings about his father than other biographers do. I could go on and on about many interesting things Korda does in bringing Lawrence to life on the page but I suggest you discover the book on your own. As an FYI, I have had an almost life long interest (hobby) in Lawrence and have collected may books and articles about him. This started when father took my brother and me to see the film a week after he had seen in 1962 as he had been intrigued by Lawrence as a boy. If you're interesting in reading or learning more you might consider exploring the following. In several places Korda references Jeremy Wilson's book, LAWERENCE OF ARABIA: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPY OF T. E. LAWRENCE (1990). This is an exceptionally fine and very detailed and well documented work which may contain more military details than many readers want to know. (Unfortunately I don't believe it is currently in print.) Mr. Wilson and his wife Nichole now own Castle Hill Press where they have edited and published very limited, fine copies of Lawrence's works and letters. I own several of these volumes and they are wonderfully produced. Their most recent publication is Lawrence's THE MINT. (Castle Hill Press can be found on the internet.) I also greatly admired John E. Mack's A PRINCE OF OUR DISORDER, THE LIFE OF T. E. LAWRENCE (1976) which won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a psychological study with emphasis on how ones world view impacts relationships. (Mack went on later to do very controversial studies with people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens.) I recommend a reading of many of Lawrence's letter. The volume I most enjoyed is THE LETTERS OF T. E. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1938, my Spring Books volume is 1964), edited by David Garnett with a forward by Captain B. H. Liddell Hart.

Shortly after World War I, the Peace of Versailles and the Cairo Conference, T.E. Lawrence attempted to regain some semblance of his own humanity by losing himself in literary work which would eventually include his epic Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph. At this time Lawrence also turned out his own translation (and interpretation) of Homer's Odyssey, perhaps the most heroic tale of all time. Not unlike other great and charismatic figures in history Lawrence was at once a heroic figure and quite engrossed, one way or another, with the notion of hero-making. All of this became part of Michael Korda's point of reference for the most recent biography of Lawrence, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia. At 784 pages it is very nearly the longest entry in this vein that includes well over sixty works. For the record Jeremy Wilson's Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T. E. Lawrence is the longest and perhaps most exhaustive of the many Lawrence biographies, but it is also a bit on the dry side. Korda, on the other hand presents a fresh, balanced and very readable work that separates and then reintegrates the life and the legend of a modern hero. He also is quick to point out how the work of Lawrence, particularly his insights into political insurgencies, counter-insurgencies, and guerilla warfare remain as relevant today as ever. And Korda has managed to add some new details and valuable insights to a life already well dissected in literature. There have been some complaints about the organization and presentation of Korda's work in that rather than present a traditional chronological biography he chose to open with Lawrence's early experiences in the Middle East in World War I culminating with the Aqaba episode, and why not, this is where and when Lawrence becomes a legend and a hero, all consistent with the author's main theme. This approach also serves to dramatically grab the reader. But this is far more than a heroic tome to Lawrence, it is also a fairly unique study in human nature, and Lawrence's personal struggles with his own humanity. Too many works on Lawrence are unable to relate Lawrence's early life and his later life in ways that engage the reader on the level of his major exploits, but this is something that Korda achieves with relative ease in this volume and this is one of the endearing qualities of this entry. Korda may not have written the "definitive" biography of Lawrence, though at times his insights and newly researched documents warrant consideration of this vaunted title, but it is easily the most readable of these works with a prose that even Lawrence, a stickler regarding the English language, would have admired. In the end Korda further unmasks one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century and what we find is someone perhaps even bigger, on so many levels, than the traditional legend.

When the subject of the biography is a legend like Arabian Lawrence, I expect a lot of the book: effortlessly flowing prose as well as exacting research. Korda's work, in my opinion, fulfills both these criteria. Before getting the book (Kindle version), I read some of the reviews complaining about the author's unwieldy sentence structure that made reading this book a labor. The very first sentence indeed seemed to confirm this complaint; I had to read it a couple of times in order to get its exact meaning. But I had no problems afterwards; indeed the book read like the best of novels. I haven't done any significant reading of the subject (Arabian Lawrence & the Arab Revolt as well as the First World War in the Middle East) before, so I perhaps I'm not the right person to judge the book's worth as history. But where the book touched subjects I am familiar with, it fared well. There were a couple of instances where Korda's background descriptions of world politics were outdated; for example, the view of modern historiography of the outbreak of the First World War is far more nuanced than Korda's one-sentence description makes it out to be. But that's a very minor blemish in an ambitious work like this. For those looking for a substantial one-volume biography this is the work. It doesn't succumb to hero worship or legend-bashing; neither does it give way to the temptation of over-analyzing Lawrence's personality. Korda leaves no doubt that Lawrence was not only a tremendously gifted, but also a tremendously complex character, but he also makes clear that Lawrence's complexes have been blown more out of proportion than his gifts.

I'm immensely enjoying this book, which brings to life so many elements in the life of T. E. Lawrence and places them in terrific context. What's really detracting from my enjoyment of the book, however, are the dozens and dozens of typos I've encountered (and I'm only 20% of the way through the book). Words run together at least once or twice every other page, there are numerous words that are lower case that should be upper case (just look at the notes on chapter 3 alone and you'll see at least a half dozen cases)... It's sloppy and shows that the publisher shows no regard for the e-reader--except when it comes to collecting a fat price for the ebook. I'm sure some will say to focus on the content rather than the format of the ebook, but the many many typos and words squashed together are seriously detracting from my enjoyment of this book and prove incredibly frustrating. I can't imagine that the same is true of the hard copy of the book. Either way, an editor somewhere should be fired. It's just a shame that such a fine book that the author clearly labored over is presented in such a sloppy manner.

By necessity consisting in large part of countless lengthy quotations from Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom, the author nevertheless fills in with a wealth of information and insight which I have never before seen, despite having read and re-read the work of Lawrence and many of his biographers almost religiously for many years now. The Preface is remarkable in that it points precisely to Lawrence's unique appeal, that he was "a hero not by accident, or even by singular act of heroism, but ... made himself a hero by design ... [and] became the victim of his own fame." The closing pages of Chapter 12 provide a touching account of Lawrence's funeral and the gifted description of his friend Robert Storrs of the moment the casket was closed. The collection of photographs is, to me at least, by far the best I have yet seen and is well-placed in the text. The clue to the full name of "S.A.", to whom Seven Pillars was dedicated, always and still assumed to be Dahoum, is something I have not previously noticed. One of Lawrence's many deadpan remarks which I have seen in passing before, but which struck me as particularly stinging and even more true today, was his cynical observation that America had a "particular combination of idealism and commerce." That style is so very like many statements made by Feisal and directed at France. Of course anyone who has ever had the misfortune of working with a Frenchman is automatically an admirer of all things for which T.E. Lawrence fought. On Iraq, Lawrence, 90 years ago, "saw very clearly that the object should never be to invade or occupy territory with troops -- a waste of time, manpower, and money -- ... but to threaten punishment from the air, and only when necessary, carry it out." What a shame our recent leaders seem not to have been well read-in on the history of the region in that regard, while it seems they certainly did grasp the Arab concept of blood feud and avenging family honor only too well. No matter how many times I read words written by Lawrence, I never fail to find something new.

The journey of his is truly extraordinary and yet strange at the same time. The whole steps and thinking that he took during the archeology, war, uncrowned king fame, then post-war life with the burden by the fame of hero on him. His life was indeed interesting. And how his part did indeed shaped the middle east after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. On another side of the note, I think the book could cut down some fillers in my opinion. When the chapter starting to talk about his childhood I started to skim through. Then it was back to war...then I skimmed again in chapters about his postwar life with books and disillusioned moments.

Interessant und gut geschrieben bzw. beschrieben. Schade, dass es das nicht auf Deutsch gibt, denn es würde sich prima zum Verschenken eignen.

Excellent biography, disappointingly poor condition.

It's nearly 80yrs since T E Lawrence died from motorcycle crash injuries, so it's reasonable to wonder whether anything significant can be possibly added to the hundreds of books which have been published since 1935. In this case, there certainly is. Michael Korda must have undertaken a massive amount of research to bring together material for `Hero'. He has done so triumphantly and has produced a riveting portrait of the troubled but quite brilliant Lawrence and, importantly, the era and events in which he found himself. Korda begins with circumstances leading up to and the capture of Aqaba in 1917. Readers new to TEL may wish to follow a stricter chronology and bypass the first two chapters, beginning at chapter 3, and then inserting these earlier pages (1 to 114) immediately before chapter 7. Through Korda's modern and detailed examination - with just the right degree of occasional deviations from main themes, to amplify a context - one is presented with a thorough and exceptionally balanced biography. It's one of those rare biographies which enables the reader to conclude unequivocally whether or not he would like and be able to participate in a relaxed conversation for an afternoon with Lawrence, were this possible. (This reviewer says yes to both, though up against Lawrence's laser-sharp intellect, there might well be some heart-stopping moments). What makes this book special is the way Korda examines motivations lying behind TEL's success and astonishing achievements. Out tumble numerous important matters, many at last ending earlier speculation of those that are key to explaining his personality: he wasn't a loner - he had a vast array of friends at both the highest and lower levels of society, but vigorously protected his solitude; he wasn't gay, but asexual (we learn that he proposed to the pretty Janet Laurie and though she turned him down, they stayed on good terms and he remained touchingly fond of her); he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and one or more mental breakdowns as a result of his dreadful war time experiences, and the guilt associated with the Arab Revolt and their subsequent treatment by the Allied Powers post war. In particular, this triggered in TEL a period of atonement/penance in later years, in which he endured physical abuse and entered the lowest ranks of the Army and then Royal Air Force, where his substantial work on coastal fast-rescue boats would help save the lives of downed pilots in WW2. Adding to this, his illegitimacy continually shamed him, to which he reacted by self-imposing a lifetime of austere mental and physical hardships that are virtually impossible to comprehend. But it made him tough as nails. When the war came, these characteristics, a deep academic knowledge of the classics and pre-war field experience in the Middle East enabled him to fly at a wholly different altitude to that of his contempories and many superiors, and saw things they didn't. Hence his success; an example perhaps of how brains and hardship can sometimes produce excellence So, in the end, from this extraordinary mix, came one of the most important men in modern British history, who had commanding ability in military strategy, leadership and a vision unrivalled at that time in the Middle East theatre. Had he lived, his wisdom, perspicacity and intelligence before and during WW2 would have saved thousands of lives and much of the destruction, which marks that war and thereafter. The American English in which `Hero' is written has not been edited for UK readers. And some of the monetary conversions mix dollars and sterling, so that amounts restated for our current era will be affected by both inflation and exchange rates. But these are minor points; Michael Korda has produced an outstanding book: a history that is as informed as it is sweeping. Fantastic. [5-star; 0912]

This book is compulsive reading. It is the story of a fascinating man - a dreamer who lived his dream. The movie gives no idea of the real complex story. Seven Pillars of Wisdom at last makes sense.

今を去ること48年前の高校二年生の時に、ピーター・オトール主演、オマーシャリフ、アンソニー・クイン、デヴィット・ニーヴェンが脇役として出演した映画、「アラビアのロレンス」を見て以来、いたく感銘を受け、その思いは今でも続いている。今年（2011年）の二月にNHKで放映された「アラビアのロレンス」を久しぶりに見て強い印象が残っている時に、この本が出版されるということをアマゾン'コムで知って、買ったものである。 宣伝には700ページを越す大作、と書いてあったのでそれなりの覚悟を持って注文した。届いた本のずっしりとした重さに圧されて、果たしてこれを読み終えることができるかと一瞬思ったものだったが、今、読み終えて、ある種の達成感を抱くと共に四十数年越しの思いを遂げたような気がする。映画で見たアラビアのロレンスはごく一部であり、映画が終わっても彼の人生は続いていた（当然であろうが）、ということをこの本から知ることができ、その数奇な人生に改めて感嘆したものである。 この本はまさに「アラビアのロレンス」こと、T. E. Lawrenceの一生を、産まれたときから死んだときまで、を克明に描いた本である。作者、Michael Kord氏は英米においてこの分野ではよく知られた作家のようである。私は初めてこの人のものを読んだが、この本に限って言えば、細部にわたる記述にも関わらず読者を飽きさせない優秀な物書きだと思った。特に爽やかに読むことができたのは、できる限り作者の忖度を入れず、ロレンスやその他の登場人物を客観的に描いている点である。これは伝記作家として大切なことであり、歴史小説とは一線を画す所以だと思う。日本で言えば、亡くなってしまったが、吉村昭氏のような文体だと思った。但し、700ページという大作なので時には冗長と思われる箇所もあったが、それは恐らく私の英語力の不足にもよるものだろう。 この本を読むには歴史的背景を知る必要がある。特に日本人にとってはどちらかと言うと馴染みの無い、1800年代のヨーロッパや中東の植民地主義の実体を知っておかないと筋書きについて行けない。私の場合は、バルフォア宣言、そして映画アラビアのロレンスにも少し出て来た、フセイン・マクマホン協定や、サイクス・ピコ協定等、多少の知識はあったが、この本を読むに当たって（読みながら）インターネットで改めて調べたものである。その他にも、キッチナー陸軍大臣、英国がトルコに敗れたガリポリ上陸作戦、シリア、ヨルダン、イラク王国の基礎となったハーシム家のことなど、この本を読む傍ら調べたのがこの本の内容を理解する助けになった。Wikipediaには、アラビアのロレンスの映画の説明もあるので、これを読むと楽しいし役に立つ。これまでにアラビアのロレンスにあまり馴染みの無かった人は最初にこれを読むといいと思う。 多くの人に読んでもらいたいので、長くなるが、この本の内容を各章毎に述べてみたいと思う。 1. Preface 著者は、昨今の、たまたま事故や事件に遭遇して助かったような人をもしてヒーローと呼ぶ風潮を批判する。ヒーローとは自分で運命を切り開いた者にだけ与えられるもので、それ故にこそロレンスはヒーローなのだ、と言うのである。（この章は全部を読み終えてからもう一度読んでみるとその言わんとすることがよくわかる。） 2. 第一章、Who Is This Extraordinary Pip-Squeak? これから登場して来る人物等の紹介があり、あまり物語性が無いので読むのが少々辛かった。反トルコとして英国に協力を約束するハシーブ家のSharif Husseinとその息子、特にEmir Feisalの紹介は重要である。 3. 第二章、Aqaba, 1917:The Making of a Hero アカバ攻撃により一躍ロレンスが英雄として躍り出た場面の記述である。映画にも出て来た、部族間の調和をはかるために自らの手で部下を殺したこと、ネフド砂漠でガシムを救ったこと等はこの章に描かれている。（ロレンスの人間性と活躍を知ることのできる章である。） 4. 第三章、”The Family Romance” まさにロレンスの生い立ちである。父親が娘の家庭教師と不実を犯し、その家庭教師と共に家を出て、そして産まれたのがロレンスを含む五人の兄弟である、ということが描かれている。ロレンスは1888年８月16日に産まれた。 5. 第四章、Oxford, 1907-1910 ロレンスは人と交わらない性格で、一人で居たがり、チームプレーが嫌いで、好きな科目なだけに熱中するという、まさに天才肌の青年であった。この章ではオックスフォード時代のロレンスの活動が描かれる。 6. 第五章、Carchemish:1911-1914 当時のオスマントルコの管轄下にあったCarchemishで、オックスフォードの学生として発掘作業を行っていたときの記述。この地での三年間がロレンスをアラブ通にした。興味深いのは、英国人であるにもかかわらず地元の人に尊敬されていた、ということである。（英雄・アラビアでのロレンスを形成したのはこの地であった、と読者は理解するのだった。） 7. 第六章、Cairo:1914-1916 カイロにて陸軍情報部に所属し、地図の作製等に関わる。サイクス・ピコ条約のことがこの章で出てくる。この条約の如何に関わらず、Damascusに先に着いた者がシリアの所有権を取る、との理解の元でロレンスはアラブにそうさせようとする。 8. 第七章、1917: The Uncrowned King of Arabia ロレンスがアカバを落とし、その後トルコの鉄道をゲリラ戦で爆破して行く、彼の野戦における絶頂期を描いている。その活動は本国でも知られるようになり、英雄視される。また、この章では、映画にも出てくる、ロレンスがトルコ領、Derraの町でトルコ兵に捕まりむち打たれる情景が生々しく記述されている。 9. 第八章、1918: Triumph and Tragedy ロレンスはアラブを率いてダマスカスへの入城に成功する。それは1918年、ロレンスが28歳のときであった。これを期にして、砂漠での活躍を終えてロレンスはイギリスへ帰ることになった。映画はこの辺で終わっている。ロレンスが砂漠で戦ったのは1916年から1918年であった。この章では、アラブを率いて英国軍に先んじてダマスカスに入ったロレンスであるが、その結果がロレンスの思惑と違ってしまったこと、そしてその無念さも描かれている。（読みごたえのある章であった。） 10. 第九章、In the Great World ロレンス、ナイトの叙勲を断る。第一次世界大戦後のパリでの平和会議の様子が描かれている。シリアの王となったFeisalとの邂逅も描かれている。 アメリカ人記者、Lowell Thomasがニューヨークでロレンスの活躍を紹介したところ、大評判となる。彼の作成した記録映画が1919年３月９日に上映されて以来、ロレンスは、Lawrence of Arabia、として名を馳せた。（読者は、ロレンスの名前が西側社会では生前から既に高名であったことを気づかされる。） 10. 第十章、”Backing into the Limelight”: 1920-1922 1920年２月18日、ロレンスはMiddle Eastern Department of Colonial Officeに勤務する。チャーチルに空軍の利用を進言する。一年ほどしかその職に居なかったが、イラクの国境を作り、Feisalを初代の王とし、Jordanを形成してFeisalの兄のAbdullaを王にした。しかし、King Husseinとibn Saud（後のサウジアラビアの王）との和解は失敗した。チャーチルはロレンスに、フセイン・マクマホン協定（＝反トルコの見返りとしてのアラブの独立）の解消をKing Husseinと交渉するようにと指示したが、それを潔しとせずMiddle Eastern Department of Colonial Officeを辞職した。（砂漠を去ってから、地味ではあるがこのような重要な仕事をしていたことを知って読者としてはロレンスの別の面に触れた思いである。これこそ彼の伝記を読んでよかったと思う場面である。） 11. 第十一章、”Solitary in the Ranks” ロレンスは、John Hume Ross、という別名で空軍（Royal Air Force）に一兵士として入隊した。入隊しながら「Seven Pillars of Wisdom」の出版を目論んでいた。（このような生き方が、人をしてロレンスが奇人と言う所以である。） ロレンスが空軍の一兵卒で居ることが世間にばれてしまい、辞めさせられたが、二ヶ月もしないうちにRoyal Tank Corpsに入隊する。その後、東京大学の英語教授の職を推薦されたこともあった。（日本に来たらよかったのに、と思った。） 12. 第十二章、Apotheosis 1925年８月、T. E. Showとして再びRoyal Air Forceに入隊する。空軍の規則として五年間の海外勤務が義務づけられているが、ロレンスの名前が有名すぎて中東には派遣できない、窮余の末、カラチに派遣された。カラチのDrigh Roadに駐屯する。 一方、ロレンスがアフガニスタンのKing Amanullahを助けるために同国へ赴いたと言う噂が流れ、帝国主義に反対する英国の反政府団体はロレンスの人形を焼いて抗議した。ロレンスはこの釈明のために本国へ戻るが、大勢の新聞記者に囲まれた。ロレンスは20世紀になってはじめてじぶんの名声故にその犠牲になった人、と言われている。 1935年２月25日にロレンスはRoyal Air Forceを除隊する。その年の５月13日、モーターバイクの事故に遭う、英国王も二名の医師を送ったが、19日午前八時、死亡する。46歳だった。（終章を飾るにふさわしい、華やかさのある記述である。） 13. Epilogue ロレンスの評価、帝国主義＝新しいアラブ王国を設立したので、反帝国主義＝反映植民地主義であった、との二つの評価がある。 映画、「アラビアのロレンス」製作余話、ロレンス役は、Laurence Olivier、Marlon Brandoと候補が挙がったが、最終的に、Peter O’tooleになった。（雑談的な内容で、おもしろかった。私はピーター・オトールはロレンスに最適な俳優だと思っている。）