Record Number: 30870
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Lovely hot day. Read Oppenheim and played Bridge after lunch.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:11 Jan 1905
Country:at sea in the Eastern Mediterranean
Timedaytime
Place:other location: on board the 'Ortona' between Naples and Port Said
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:16 Jul 1868
Socio-Economic Group:Gentry
Occupation:Oxford graduate, language student, traveller, archaeologist, yet to take up formal occupation as political advisor
Religion:originally Christian (Anglican) by now declared atheist
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:at sea in the Eastern Mediterranean
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Vom Mittelmeer zum persischen Golf durch den Haurän, die syrsche Wüste und Mesopotamien, 2 vols., 1899
Genre:archaeology
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Details1899
Provenanceunknown
probably owned
Source Information:
Record ID:30870
Source - Manuscript:Other
Information:
Gertrude Bell Archive Newcastle University Library http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk
Additional Information:
Diary entry 11 January 1905 http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/diary_details.php?diary_id=354
Citation:
Gertrude Bell Archive Newcastle University Library http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30870, accessed: 18 July 2024
Additional Comments:
While the identity of the book being read is unverified, it is most likely to be Max von Oppenheim's 1899 German 2 volume work on Syrian archaeology. All the works of Oppenheim were published after 1905, apart from one other in 1902 that dealt with the Sudan. It is very unlikely that the Oppenheim that Gertrude Bell was reading was anyone other than the archaeologist. Though the novelist E. Phillips Oppenheim is a remote possibility, the style of the diary entry and the context strongly suggest Max von Oppenheim.