Product Description

The 19th-century explorer Richard Burton was a blend of erudite scholar and daring adventurer. Fluent in 29 languages, he found it easy to pass himself off as a native, thereby gaining unique insight into societies otherwise closed to Western scrutiny. He followed service as an intelligence officer in India with a daring penetration of the sacred Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina disguised as a pilgrim. He was the first European to enter the forbidden African city of Harar, and discovered Lake Tanganyika in his search for the source of the Nile. His fascination with, and research into, intimate ethnic customs, which would eventually culminate in his "Kama Sutra", earned him a racy reputation in that age of sexual repression. Isabel Arundell's aristocratic mother objected to her daughter's marriage to this notorious figure, but Isabel was a spirited, independent-minded woman, and was also passionately in love with Burton. This book tells the story of their successful marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #925983 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 860 pages

DAILY MAIL
'A splendid addition to the tales of Kenya's colonial past'

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'A labour of love ... a lively, warmhearted book about a lively, woman'

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'Gripping'

Customer Reviews

Scholarly and personal
This is a wonderful biography which portrays the Burtons well-travelled lives as a a couple, rather than focusing only on Richard. Mary Lovell has had access to papers and letters unavailable to previous biographers and has re-read the existing material. While minutely researched and scholarly, it is also a warm and personal story of two very alive people with a hunger for knowledge and experience exploring the world together. She feels a closeness to her subjects which is always apparent in the book without becoming cloying. Burton was the archetypal Victorian adventurer, beginning his career as an officer in the East India company and serving as consul in different parts of the world while pursuing his alternative careers of writing and exploration. Often in conflict with his superiors, a rebel and not an easy man to know. His books often throw light on little-known areas, male brothels in India, for example, which interested him as an anthropologist. As an adventure story alone the book is hard to put down. But the chief fascination lies in the intimate picture of this couple who had such a rage to live, and whom you feel you know by the end. Mary Lovell has struck the right balance of scholarship and personal warmth.