I knew of Lawrence of Arabia from the movie of that name. I have a much better understanding of T.E. Lawrence now that I’ve read Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

The movie was great and so was the book. And the book certainly was more accurate and a much deeper portrait of the man known as Lawrence of Arabia. The movie is a much smaller investment of your time (long for a movie but still less than 4 hours) but it only tells part of the story. Reading the book takes much longer but if you’d like a deeper understanding of T.E. Lawrence and the events of the time, it is well worth your time. I’ve watched the movie several times but decided to watch it again after reading the book. I’d recommend doing that.

I first learned of this book while driving and listening to NPR. I forget which day it was but a search of the NPR website shows an interview with Michael Korda on T.E. Lawrence on “Talk of the Nation” on November 18, 2010. I am listening as I type and that interview sounds familiar. (But I did fail at multi-tasking this time as I stopped typing to listen intently.) You can read about it or listen to the whole interview.

Korda starts with Lawrence as a very junior British officer in Cairo during World War I. And he then manages to become a leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. This is the story told in the movie. But the book by Michael Korda fills in the rest of the story explaining how Lawrence got there and why he was who he was, gives more details on the Arab Revolt, and tells how he coped with his fame, successes and failures.

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia is a great success. Korda is a wonderful story teller and is a master at integrated quotes about Lawrence or by Lawrence into the story. I did like his use of footnotes to expand on some points or to explain important issues which did not fit easily into the flow of the story. In a few places I wished he had used footnotes more. On occasion he quotes French without translation and I would have appreciated a translation. I would have also liked to see an explanation of the strings of letters after names. I just assumed they were all various types of knighthoods and British honors but an explanation would have been nice. By the way, there is a good summary webpage on knighthood abbreviations (you’ll have to page down a little). Perhaps a few pages where you could easily refresh your memory as to who various characters are when they reappear would have made a nice addition.

But these are all minor quibbles. Hero is a wonderful book about a complex character and covers complex events. The partition of the defeated Ottoman Empire suited the European power politics of the time but seems to be the root of many of our problems in the Middle East today.

I thought it did bog down in details in a few places but in other places I was glad for the details and enjoyed the narrative. At times the book felt too long but at other times I was glad it was as long as it was. I would guess another reader might find the places I found slow to be enjoyable and some of the passages I enjoyed to be too detailed.

So this book is not only a good history and biography but it is very relevant to current events. I’d highly recommend it.