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"This masterpiece of history and biography turns the real-life adventures of Burton into a riveting taleThe last great word on the last great explorer of the colonial age." -Wall Street Journal. A New York Times best-seller when it was first published, Rice's biography is the gripping story of a fierce, magnetic, and brilliant man whose real-life accomplishments are the stuff of legend. Rice retraces Burton's steps as the first European adventurer to search for the source of the Nile; to enter, disguised, the forbidden cities of Mecca and Medina; and to travel through remote stretches of India, the Near East, and Africa. From his spying exploits to his startling literary accomplishments (the discovery and translation of the Kama Sutra and his seventeen-volume translation of Arabian Nights ), Burton was an engrossing, larger-than-life Victorian figure, and Rice's splendid biography lays open a portrayal as dramatic, complicated, and compelling as the man himself.
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Richard Burton's father, Joseph Netterville Burton, was a gentleman in an age when being a gentleman was a proper calling. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Richard Burton's father, Joseph Netterville Burton, was a gentleman in an age when being a gentleman was a proper calling. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This biography fully does justice to Richard Burton's astonishing career and character; not dry, academic or dull, and without any of the amatuer psychology and supposition that so often clouds modern biographical insight. Burton lived the life of which (especially Victorian) heroes were made: a brilliant linguist, expert swordsman, Sufi mystic, explorer par excellence, participant in the Great Game. He achieved more in countless fields than even the most impressive of men achieve in one. Edward Rice's book fully captures both the multi-faceted nature of this great man, examining his life in detail and conveying the rich sense of adventure and curiosity which drove Burton through India, Central Asia, Africa, South America, and richly evoking the time and character of these exotic, hypnotic places. Burton himself was a great storyteller and it is in this vein, perhaps, that the book best elicits its subject: fascinating, admirable, beguiling. Thoroughly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the second purchase of this book that I have made, and I have already tattered its edges from referring to it so often. As all of Burton's major biographies go, Rice's book has the easiest format for me to quickly refer to. Just as with Brodie's, Lovell's,and Godsall's, it has well-labeled chapters with well-researched data, organized into a well-written and well-edited format. Yet, due to the fact that I frequently refer to particular points in Burton's life, this book has been by far the most useful to me. Research-wise and bibliography-wise, this book is beautifully arranged.
Now if you are looking for a biography of Sir Richard F Burton to read for pleasure, Rice is also a great place to start. It is very concise, full of interesting facts you might not get elsewhere. Rice is a beautiful writer and quickly captures his audience in his book--which, as any reader of biographies knows, is not always at the top of the agenda.
I do highly recommend Rice's "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography". If you have an interest in Richard F Burton, history, travel, exploration, differing cultures, Victorian England, Oxford, India, Mecca, El-Medina, Harrar, Africa, South America, Trieste, Tours,France, languages, anthropology, the Crimean War, falconry, fencing, swordsmanship, erotica, sexual prowess, writing, poetry, and on and on--you will enjoy this very much!
Now if you are looking for a biography of Sir Richard F Burton to read for pleasure, Rice is also a great place to start. It is very concise, full of interesting facts you might not get elsewhere. Rice is a beautiful writer and quickly captures his audience in his book--which, as any reader of biographies knows, is not always at the top of the agenda.
I do highly recommend Rice's "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography". If you have an interest in Richard F Burton, history, travel, exploration, differing cultures, Victorian England, Oxford, India, Mecca, El-Medina, Harrar, Africa, South America, Trieste, Tours,France, languages, anthropology, the Crimean War, falconry, fencing, swordsmanship, erotica, sexual prowess, writing, poetry, and on and on--you will enjoy this very much!
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Given that Captain Sir Richard F Burton's wife destroyed much of his material the author has woven a great deal of work and detail into this biography. While I believe in the argument that as a historian one should not try and judge the past by current standards. However, as a Black Man I felt uncomfortable with Rice's appraisal of Burton in regards to Africans. Likewise , his observations on Speke and his relations with African women.
I think a double standard exists in history where when dealing with say subjects of Germany's treatment of the Jews between 1925 -1940 most authors make known their own views on the matter, yet in regards to the blatant racism of Colonial Britain, no outcry or view other than empathy is written. In effect the Colonial sentiment of white supremacy goes wholly unchallenged, and is carried off into the 21st Century. It is not good enough for the modern historian not to challenge these views, as they are still prevalent today. Nor should the author assume that his readership would not be multi-ethnic, especially as the author is an American.
Otherwise the book, is a fascinating bundle of compelling reading, of an amazing man. I just lost my sympathy for Burton when reading about his views on Africans on his posting to Fernando Po (sp) and increased my respect of Speke the stuff English man who not only going beyond the pale in Anglo Afican relations but had the Ball or Stupidity as Rice comments to go public about it.
I think a double standard exists in history where when dealing with say subjects of Germany's treatment of the Jews between 1925 -1940 most authors make known their own views on the matter, yet in regards to the blatant racism of Colonial Britain, no outcry or view other than empathy is written. In effect the Colonial sentiment of white supremacy goes wholly unchallenged, and is carried off into the 21st Century. It is not good enough for the modern historian not to challenge these views, as they are still prevalent today. Nor should the author assume that his readership would not be multi-ethnic, especially as the author is an American.
Otherwise the book, is a fascinating bundle of compelling reading, of an amazing man. I just lost my sympathy for Burton when reading about his views on Africans on his posting to Fernando Po (sp) and increased my respect of Speke the stuff English man who not only going beyond the pale in Anglo Afican relations but had the Ball or Stupidity as Rice comments to go public about it.
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