Born March 12, 1776,
Kent, England
Died June 23, 1839,
Mount Lebanon, Lebanon

Hester Stanhope spent most of her adult life living a romantic dream of travel and adventure in the Middle East. Highly intelligent, she was an independent woman with a flair for the dramatic and a never-ending curiosity about the world around her. During her lifetime she ventured into areas that few Europeans had ever seen, a fact made even more remarkable because she was living at a time when women had few rights or privileges. Stanhope adopted the dress of a Turkish gentleman and for a time was the absolute monarch of her own tiny kingdom. She gradually cut all ties with the Western world, dying penniless and alone in 1839.

Born on March 12, 1776, Hester Lucy Stanhope had a lonely and unhappy childhood. Her father was the third earl of Stanhope, and her mother was the favorite sister...