Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, Vol III

In the early nineteenth century, one woman abandoned the rigid contours of English society and vanished into the wilds of the Ottoman Empire. Lady Hester Stanhope was no ordinary aristocrat: she rode across the Arabian desert in men's clothing, bargained with pashas, befriendedBedouin sheikhs, and eventually retreated to a crumbling palace on Mount Lebanon, where she ruled her own private kingdom. This third volume gathers her remarkable conversations with Dr. Charles Meryon, the physician who accompanied her on seven years of wandering through Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and beyond. Here she speaks freely about the famous figures she encountered, the cultures she navigated, and the fierce independence that cost her nearly everything. It's a portrait of a woman who refused to be anything less than extraordinary, told in her own electrifying voice.