Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography
by Edward Rice
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Book Summary Information
Author: Edward RiceEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-06
ISBN: 030681028X
Number of pages: 688
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780306810282
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography
Book Review: Definitive Biography of Fascinating Man
Summary: 5 Stars
My interest in Richard Francis Burton arose from my encounter with "The Book of 1,000 Nights and One Night" otherwise known as "The Arabian Nights". I wanted to learn more about the man who had done one of the several translations of this enormous and wonderful collection of stories into English.
While this is the only biography about Richard Burton that I have read, I get the sense from having read it and from other reviews that it is now the definitive biography about him. The reason for this is that Edward Rice comprehensively covers the adventures but also the intellectual and spiritual development and accomplishments of his subject, all of which were multitudinous. The man traveled all over the world and wrote over 40 books while doing so. And many of these books were long multi-volume works. And he did this in the 19th century without any modern technology. And that wasn't even all he accomplished. The man was truly amazing.
While this biography has an average rating of 4.5 stars, it is clear that some readers have not really liked the book. Some have complained about too many digressions and too much detail. I suspect that this is due to Rice's coverage of the intellectual and spiritual aspects of Burton's life beyond his more physical adventures. I don't mean this in a condescending way; but someone who had heard that Burton was a famous adventurer and explorer could easily view the other material as digressive. For my part, I found it all very interesting. I think the extra material makes Burton a more interesting person. It also gives you a sense of how different he was from his contemporaries. While other Europeans were also explorers, most remained intrinsically western during their adventures. In contrast, Burton embraced the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the peoples he encountered and gained a better understanding of them for it.
Summary of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography
"This masterpiece of history and biography turns the real-life adventures of Burton into a riveting tale...The 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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