Books: The Vanished Galahads

THE HOME LETTERS OF T. E. LAWRENCE AND HIS BROTHERS (731 pp.)—Macm/7/an ($10).

No argument can change the elderly Englishman's probably accurate belief that his country and his world suffered an irremediable loss in "The War"—meaning, of course, World War I. The nature of that loss is defined in The Home Letters of

T. E. Lawrence and His Brothers, a massive volume of letters, written mostly by Lawrence of Arabia to his parents. They are not "great" letters—in fact, many are unspeakably dull. They are of interest today because they bring momentarily to life...