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The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton
 
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The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton (Paperback)

by Fawn M. Brodie (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Price For All Three: £27.04

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Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: Eland Publishing Ltd; New edition edition (31 Jan 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0907871232
  • ISBN-13: 978-0907871231
  • Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 13.7 x 2.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 44,277 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #26 in  Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Discovery & Exploration

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Product Description

Review

"No one could fail to write a good life of Burton, but Fawn Brodie has written a brilliant one" J. H. Plumb, New York Times


J H Plumb, The New York Times

Her scholarship is wide and searching, and her understanding of Burton and his wife both wide and deep.
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Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Devil Drives, 7 Feb 2008
By Laser (Egypt) - See all my reviews
One of the finest biographies I have read - I really can't recommend it highly enough.

Burton is among the most fascinating figures of the nineteenth century (or any century for the matter). He can claim to be one of the finest linguists of his age - he spoke 25 languages (40 dialects in all) and translated from Hindustani, Portuguese, Arabic, Italian, Sanskrit and Latin. His translation of the Arabian Nights is still the standard by which all others are judged.

These linguistic talents and a prodigous amount of hard work allowed Burton to draw far more from his journeys than other explorers of the age (the comparison with Speke is particularly strongly drawn by Brodie, who, unsurprisingly, comes down firmly on Burton's side). He was one of the pioneers of anthropology and the lengthy accounts he made of his travels, although of varying quality, proved to be pioneering works on the language, culture, religion, and history of these regions. Alongside his famous explorations of Mecca and Eastern Africa, Brodie's biography also covers his less well known (to me at any rate) journeys to India, Utah, Brazil and Syria amongst others.

Brodie provides a wonderful portrait of Burton's character and his complex relationship with his staunchly Catholic wife Isabel. Burton was a fierce critic of the conservative British society of the 19th Century, and dismissive of the Church's role in it - yet his wife seemed to embody many of the values that sustained this very society. Of course, his interest in sexuality and erotica was also a constant thorn in the side of their relationship. Nevertheless, as Brodie points out, the relationship worked despite these apparent clashes, not least because Isabel was in many ways a remarkable woman in her own right. However, the tragic postscript of Burton's story is his wife's decision to burn both his voluminous collection of journals and his final translation following his death. That Isabel could convince herself that this was what her husband would have wished represents an astonishing exercise in self-delusion. Whatever her merits, this is the decision for which she will always be remembered.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superlative biography of an astonishing man, 26 April 2009
By John Mason "johnm2325" (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I loved this book. I had only a vague idea of who Richard Burton was and what he had done before I bought the book. He was one of the most remarkable figures of the Victorian era - a linguist and explorer - among his other exploits, he visited Mecca disguised as muslim pilgrim, and played a major (and controversial) role in the search for the source of the Nile. Brodie's book recounts these and other tales in an intelligent, articulate and highly readable way. Some of her speculations on Burton's psychology may be a little 'over-the-top' but this is a very minor flaw. I highly recommend this book, which deserves to be more widely known.
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