Arabia Felix: The Danish Expedition of 1761-1767 [Paperback]

A riveting account of a landmark expedition that left only one survivor, now back in print for the first time in decades.

Arabia Felixis the spellbinding true story of a scientific expedition gone disastrously awry. On a winter morning in 1761 six men leave Copenhagen by sea—a botanist, a philologist, an astronomer, a doctor, an artist, and their manservant—an ill-assorted band of men who dislike and distrust one another from the start. These are the members of the Danish expedition to Arabia Felix, as Yemen was then known, the first organized foray into a corner of the world unknown to Europeans. The expedition made its way to Turkey and Egypt, by which time its members were already actively seeking to undercut and even kill one another, before disappearing into the harsh desert that was their destination. Nearly seven years later a single survivor returned to Denmark to find himself forgotten and all the specimens that had been sent back ruined by neglect.

Based on diaries, notebooks, and sketches that lay unread in Danish archives until the twentieth century,Arabia Felixis a tale of intellectual rivalry and a comedy of very bad manners, as well as an utterly absorbing adventure.

Arabia Felixincludes 33 line drawings and maps. This tale of an 18th century scientific expedition gone awry (first published in Danish in 1962 and back out in a new English edition) is a brutal, beautiful story of human ideals – and all the clever ways we manage to muck them up. Part history, part fiction, part travelogue, this book balances its central tragedy with some winks and smirks. And yes, it's true: Before long, I found those pages practically turned themselves. —Colin Dwyer, NPR Book Concierge, 2017's Great Reads

“First and foremost,Arabia Felixis just a terrific story: riveting, hilarious, exquisitely written and translated. Beyond that, however, it draws a rich and dl³.