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all the effort of shadow. In the Mosque of Sheikh
Lutfullah, it is a richness of light and surface, of pattern and colour only. The architectural form is unimportant. It is not smothered, as in rococo; it is simply the instrument of a spectacle, as earth is the instrument of a garden. And then I suddenly thought of that unfortunate species, modern interior decorators, who imagine they can make a restaurant, or a cinema, or a plutocrat's drawing-room look rich if given money enough for gold leaf and looking-glass. They little know what amateurs they are. Nor, alas, do their clients.
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I have never encountered splendour of this kind before. Other interiors came into my mind as I stood there, to compare it with: Versailles, or the porcelain rooms at Schönbrunn, or the Doge's Palace, or St Peter's. All are rich; but none so rich. Their richness is three-dimensional; it is attended by
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Robert Byron's journey in this book starts with the first entry on 20 August 1933 and ends on 8 July 1934. The following are the places that have entries in the book (NB spellings used by the author sometimes differ from contemporary usage):
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Byron interacted with the locals and negotiated transport, including motor vehicles, horses and asses to carry him on his journey. He encountered heat, cold, hunger and thirst and suffered the inconvenience of bugs,
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in his introduction to the book has described it as "a sacred text, beyond criticism," and carried his copy since he was fifteen years old, "spineless and floodstained" after four journeys through
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treasures of which Byron had extensive knowledge, as evidenced by his observations along the way. For example, he says of the
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on the monuments described in the book, including many of the photos taken by Robert Byron himself.
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published by John
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The book is an account of Byron's ten-month journey in the
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Abroad: British
Literary Traveling Between The Wars
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635:Blogger SquareKufic has a series of posts
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111:in 1933–34, partially in the company of
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33:The Road to Oxiana and The Station,
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81:Afghanistan
688:1937 books
667:Categories
647:Faded Page
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310:Ayn varzan
261:Kirmanshah
69:travelogue
31:Covers of
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451:Abbasabad
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383:Firuzabad
306:Ak bulagh
302:Kala julk
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603:, 1982.
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324:Meshed
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117:Venice
85:Oxiana
77:Persia
41:Author
547:novel
510:Kabul
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378:Kavar
344:Laman
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298:Saoma
186:fleas
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