{"product_id":"the-road-to-oxiana","title":"The Road to Oxiana","description":"\u003cp\u003eA real-life adventure that inspired countless travellers in fact and fiction, the Penguin Classics edition of Robert Byron's \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana\u003c\/i\u003e includes an introduction by Colin Thubron.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1933 Robert Byron began a journey through the Middle East via Beirut, Jerusalem, Baghdad, and Teheran to Oxiana - the country of the Oxus, the ancient name for the river Amu Darya which forms part of the border between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana\u003c\/i\u003e offers not only a wonderful record of his adventures, but also a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travelers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRobert Byron (1905-41) was born in 1905, and educated at Eton and Merton College, Oxford. He died during the Second World War, when the ship he was serving on was torpedoed by a U-Boat off Cape Wrath. Byron's \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana\u003c\/i\u003e is considered by many modern travel writers to be the first example of great travel writing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana \u003c\/i\u003eyou might like Charles Darwin's \u003ci\u003eThe Voyage of the Beagle\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The greatest of all pre-war travel books'\u003cbr\u003eWilliam Dalrymple\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'What \u003ci\u003eUlysses\u003c\/i\u003e is to the novel between the wars, and what 'The Waste Land' is to poetry, \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana\u003c\/i\u003e is to the travel book'\u003cbr\u003ePaul Fussell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'In any list of the great travel books of the 20th century, Robert Byron's account of his travels in Persia and Afghanistan, \u003ci\u003eThe Road to Oxiana\u003c\/i\u003e, must be put somewhere near the very top'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTelegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HOLIDAY BOOKS","offers":[{"title":"Neuware","offer_id":52998541377872,"sku":"9780141442099","price":16.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/3834\/5940\/files\/unnamed_cd3aa1c2-4fe0-4255-97f6-ee04c0018de3.jpg?v=1778549665","url":"https:\/\/holiday-books.de\/products\/the-road-to-oxiana","provider":"HOLIDAY BOOKS","version":"1.0","type":"link"}