Book Condition: Very Good with light shelf wear and evidence of handling, but clean, clear text with no interior markings. Originally published in 1898, this is a classic account of a trek into the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and the forbidden city of Tarudant. It includes, among its many pleasures, an excellent portrait of Berber life at the turn of the century, much enhanced by Graham's offhand bravery and wit. R. B. Cunninghame Graham's trek into the Moroccan interior beyond Marrakesh is a classic example of British adventure travel. His ostensible purpose was to reach the forbidden city of Tarudant, where it was claimed no Christian had ever set foot, and which he attempted while variously disguised as a Turkish doctor and a sheikh from Fez. In the end, Cunninghame Graham's mission was a failure: halfway to his goal, he was captured and held prisoner for four months in the medieval castle of Kintafi in the Atlas Mountains. But his loss was the reader's gain, as Edward Garnet points out in his introduction, for "the episode of this enforced detention in [a] strange semi-Arcadian, semi-feudalistic scene, while the traveller watches day after day the panorama of Berber life...is unique in the literature of travel". Part history, part social commentary as only the British wrote it, Cunninghame Graham's account of his travels makes fascinating reading nearly a century later. What rare spark motivates a man to do the impossible again and again? What manner of man destroys the boundaries of the word unobtainable and replaces it with the words why not ? Meet Robert Cunninghame Graham, the author of this book and a living legend of the late 19th century. Disillusioned with politics, the famous horseman sought solace in the saddle. His mission? To journey across Morocco in 1897 by riding through the Atlas mountains and reaching the city of Taroudant. Of course there was one small problem. The Sultan had forbidden outsiders, especially Christians, from going there. Don Roberto flouted the danger, saddled his Barb horse and galloped straight into the teeth of one of the greatest desert stories ever told. Disguised in local clothes and calling himself Sheikh Mohammad El Fasi, the Scottish author posing as a Turkish doctor was only hours away from the elusive city when he was captured and kidnapped. This book, an instant best-seller, brought praises from Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells and Bernard Shaw, who all agreed it was a rare book written by a man so kaleidoscopic in character that he defied belief
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