What can we learn about the Middle East from a travel narrative published in the 1840s? Given the twenty-first century association between the Holy Land and the Bible, we may assume that such a relationship just exists, and that the land is like the Book and contains a timeless quality. But a text such as Eothen requires us to question this supposition. Alexander Kinglake describes a Palestine which is largely a wilderness and a place on the verge of social change; a part of the Ottoman Empire, but a country under the occupation of the Egyptian forces of Mohamed Ali. Not only is it a place of “splendour and havoc”, inspiring a Romantic sense of adventure, it is also a part of the Eastern question, attracting the attention of Britain and France, and within the orbit of the European political arena. It is a wilderness on the verge of being defined by the political and religious forces of the west.

By giving us a picture of Palestine, as these social forces gained momentum, Kinglake allows us to glimpse into the past to a society and place as it engaged with Europe, and with westerners. His haughty persona, may prove a distraction, but it simultaneously indicates one strand of western-eastern relations, and also allows us to recognise the narrative strategies which, when filtered through close reading, open out onto a clear direct and articulate portrayal of early nineteenth century Levantine life.