The Nomad: Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt Paperback – January 3, 2003

This book is absolutely sincere and beautiful. A jewel.

An exciting book to read.

I did not finish the book. A lot of it seemed to me like the typical journal entries of a young woman, a lot of soul searching, romantic thoughts, thoughts about being different...One of the phrases that are repeated over and over again: "I have to learn how to think..." It's probably just me, but I started to get really annoyed by that statement.In my opinion these diaries are just too personal, too intimate and not significant enough to be published.

This is a book I remembered for 30 years and went back one day recently to find. I was not disappointed although I can see why this book appealed to me so strongly as a 20 year old. Isabelle is an amazing writer. Like the writers of haiku, Isabelle captures the beauty of the desert around her and her feelings about her life in so few words and yet so beautifully. Her love of her adopted country and religion season her view and experience of life. One might wish she had had a happier time of it or been a little better at making a living, but overall this brief book is an amazing contribution to the world by a very unusual person. I highly recommend it.

It is such a pity that Isabelle Eberhadt is so little known because there is something about her that can be found in all of us.She was a free thinking, independent woman at a time when it was hardly the thing to do. She converted to Islam by her own free will but remained her own person, she did not conform to an image of what Islam should be or what others thought it should be nor did she just convert and then melt into the mass of her fellow co-religionists.She maintained much of her anarchist upbringing and lead a life that was free from and restraints. She endered the Qadiri Sufi order and seemed to have taken the order seriously practicing the prayers that she was ordered to perform.She travelled deep into Algeria and wrote of the land and its people with a style that reflects her own free spirit. She would not be confined by anyone and perhaps it was that which brought about an attempt on her life and the anger of the colonial powers who ruled Algeria.She lead a lonely life but seemed to have had several partners. Her life was full of contradictions and this book, her diaries reflects all of that. The life of a young woman who would not be restrained neither by the times that she lived in, the culture that she was from nor the religion that she had chosen to convert to. This book captures the wild mystery of a life that was lived both in the deserts of Africa and amongst the cities of Europe.A beutiful book recomended to anyone who still has the spirit of travel or the love of the writings of someone who chose to life life as they wished to live it.

I expected to really enjoy this book as I found the subject fascinating and new to me. Unfortunately, the stilted writing and the lack of substance made it unreadable. I think a book about this woman's life with quotes interjected would be more interesting than this rambling collection of thoughts. I'm very disappointed.

The unusual life and bizarre death of Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) remains a mystery. Dressing as a man, she traveled through Saharan Africa and drowned -- in the desert -- at age 27, which only emphasizes the uniqueness of the written record she left behind. Unlike the works of other desert adventurers such as Sir Richard Burton and T. E. Lawrence, Eberhardt's diary never clarifies why she endured these hardships, or why her life was such a complex tangle that there was an attempt on her life shortly before she drowned. Her unsettling story of gender deception, unaccompanied travel in Islamic society, and unresolved death is so far out of cultural norms that her story is seldom told, and makes this diary all the more intriguing.

This is a nice selection of entries from the short but fascinating life of Isabelle Eberhardt who begins her journal on January 1st, 1900 on an island in the Mediterranean sea with introspection that reminds me of the best of Henry Miller's Tropics and Rimbaud's season in hell. Born in Switzerland, Eberhardt traveled widely, in Tangiers and Arabia, often dressed as a boy and converted to the Muslim religion. Tales of travel and sexual adventures abound and make you want to read the complete set of her existing journals. Many of her writings were lost in the flash flood which took her life in 1904. What survived is amazing as well as tantalizing. One of the most unique women in modern times.