Cover of Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton

Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton

by Edward Rice · 1990

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s/t: The Secret Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered the Kama Sutra & Brought the Arabian Nights to the West

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A NY Times bestseller when first published, Rice's biography is the gripping story of a fierce, magnetic & 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 & Medina; & to travel thru remote stretches of India, the Near East & Africa. From his spying exploits to his startling literary accomplishments (the discovery & translation of the Kama Sutra & his 17-volume translation of Arabian Nights), Burton was an engrossing, larger-than-life Victorian figure. Rice's biography lays open a portrayal as dramatic, complicated & compelling as the man himself.

Subject
biographybiographyMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of thistraveltravelMore like thisLess of thismemoirmemoirMore like thisLess of this
Genre
adventureadventureMore like thisLess of thishistorical fictionhistorical fictionMore like thisLess of this
Themes
traveltravelMore like thisLess of thisislamislamMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of this
Setting
BritishBritishMore like thisLess of thisAfricaAfricaMore like thisLess of thisMiddle EastMiddle EastMore like thisLess of thisIndiaIndiaMore like thisLess of thisAfghanistanAfghanistanMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
epic · 704 pages

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