The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent condition, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Driven by insatiable restlessness, Richard Burton went where no white man had gone before, submerging himself in strange and alien cultures. Son of an expatriate Englishman, he was raised in Europe and educated at Oxford. As a young British army officer in India in the 1840s, he first showed the gift for languages and love of danger that were to shape his destiny.
Disguised as a native, he penetrated the lowest levels of Indian society and disturbed his superiors with his frank reports. He risked sure death to stand in the inner courtyard of the most holy of Moslem mosques, then visited the forbidden city of Harar in Somaliland, giant Lake Tanganyika in the heart of Africa, the Congo, Brazil, Damascus, Egypt and the American West.
Burton's physical courage and brilliant intellect made him a living legend, and his scholarly works and travel books amazed the world. His marriage was one of the great love stories of history, never wavering even when his diplomatic career became a study in frustration and others stole the favor of the public.
This is the swift and engrossing story of one of the most colorful figures of the mid-19th century—the era of exploration and colonization.
—from the dust jacket
Jacket by Don Lambo
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