The seven pillars of wisdom
The seven pillars of wisdom (English original title Seven Pillars of Wisdom ) is an autobiographical war report published in 1926 by the British T. E. Lawrence , known as "Lawrence of Arabia". In the work he describes the Arab uprising he organized against the Ottoman Empire in 1917/1918.
title
The title comes from the Old Testament and refers to a saying of Solomon ( Prov 9,1 EU ): "Wisdom has built her house, hewn her seven pillars." Lawrence had taken this title from a previously planned book project, that of seven ancient cities in the Middle East should act.
Frames
Lawrence completed a first version of the text in 1919. However, the author lost the only copy of the manuscript while traveling by train. From memory, Lawrence wrote a second version of the work by 1920 and revised it by 1922. He later transferred this 335,000-word version to the Bodleian Library of Oxford University (“Oxford Version”).
After 1922, Lawrence made further corrections to his work and allowed friends to persuade him to make an abridged version. The author, who was already badly nervous at this point, developed an increasing distance from the events described and his text during this work. The result was a version with a length of 250,000 words, which was lavishly bound and lavishly illustrated in 1926 and sold to about 200 subscribers at a considerable financial loss for Lawrence . To make up for the losses, Lawrence in 1927 brought a more abbreviated version under the title Revolt in the Desert (dt .: revolt in the desert ) for the general public out.
After the death of Lawrence in 1935, the text of the subscribers' version was published for the general public, although connoisseurs of the "Oxford version" urged that this text, in their opinion, be published. The international success of the abridged version, which is still the most widespread, hindered this project. It was only after British copyright law expired in 1997 that the "Oxford Version" was published. Bernard Shaw and EM Forster saw it as the real masterpiece of TE Lawrence.
expenditure
- Thomas E. Lawrence: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom . Translated by Dagobert von Mikusch. P. List, Leipzig 1936.
- New edition: dtv, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-423-01456-3 .
- Thomas E. Lawrence: The seven pillars of wisdom. The complete 'Oxford' text . Castle Hill Press, Fordingbridge, Hampshire 2004, ISBN 0-9546418-0-9