∎ Read Gratis The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton Fawn M Brodie 9780393301663 Books

The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton Fawn M Brodie 9780393301663 Books

Download As PDF : The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton Fawn M Brodie 9780393301663 Books

The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton Fawn M Brodie 9780393301663 Books

The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton was a fascinating biography of an extraordinary man . I read the book originally many years ago, but through various moves, I lost my copy, but. I got it again from Amazon, and I read it on vacation to. HI, it's worth reading a second time


Tags : The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton [Fawn M. Brodie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong> Brilliant. . . . [Brodie's] scholarship is wide and searching, and her understanding of Burton and his wife both deep and wide. She writes with clarity and zest. The result is a first class biography of an exceptional man. ―J. H. Plumb,Fawn M. Brodie,The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton,W. W. Norton & Company,0393301664,Historical - General,Burton, Richard Francis,Explorers - Great Britain - Biography,Explorers;Great Britain;Biography.,Scholars - Great Britain - Biography,Scholars;Great Britain;Biography.,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Historical,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography & Autobiography General,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: historical, political & military,Discovery And Exploration (General),Explorers,General,Geographical discovery & exploration,Great Britain,Scholars,1821-1890,Burton, Richard Francis,,Sir,

The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton Fawn M Brodie 9780393301663 Books Reviews

Almost on a par with John Mack's definitive work on Lawrence of Arabia. This in-depth look at Richard Burton will likely lead you to well over a dozen wonderful books. I did not realize that Burton had turned down General Gordon's offer of the position of governor of the Sudan. The position eventually went to Rudolph Slatin (author of Fire and Sword in the Sudan), who ended up spending 13 years as prisoner of the Mahdi. There must be a few men of this caliber out there today, but I don't have a clue who they are and what they are up to.
Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton would be a worthy study for anyone interested in the potentials of the human being. A man of multiple talents and achievements, to count and adequately summarize them all would be an improbable task. This man accomplished more in a lifetime than most of us mere mortals could in several. As a 19th century British explorer, he stands with the legendary - Livingston, Stanley, Baker and Speke. What set him apart from these luminaries, towers above in fact, was is scholarship. His writing talents, publishing countless volumes, his uncanny lingual gift, (twenty-five languages, including several dialects that amount to over forty) and his inroads into anthropology, ethnology, religion and archaeology, make him one of the truly great individuals of the Victorian age. Brodie's treatment of Burton is a worthy tribute to the man, and after reading over four other life histories of Sir Richard; I can say with all honesty, that it is one of the best.

I have to admit that I have a severe aversion to that sixties literary trend of applying Freudian psychoanalysis in a biographical study. It is difficult enough analysing the living, let alone the dead and gone. Brodie is guilty of this method in this biography; however, she does it without taking anything away from the subject. Most all the typical psychoanalytical symptoms are present the Oedipus complex, latent homosexuality, and preoccupations with sex in general. Brodie's analyses, though, is not a closed shop - she remains open to her subject. In other words, her psychoanalytic musings do not cloud the uniqueness and larger than life qualities of this man. It's a side issue, and therefore can be ignored.

What is so startling about Burton was his enormous passion to know, his tireless travels and recordings of the unknown and exotic. He not only was everything mentioned above, but a poet of talent, geologist, amateur physician, expert swordsman and skilful spy. A precursor to Freud, he studied the sexual customs of many cultures and was a fierce critic of Victorian values on the subject. This man's curiosity knew no bounds and he ensured he did not waste a minute of his sixty-nine years - a relatively short life considering what the man accomplished.

There are many biographies about Burton, but this one seems to encapsulate the man's spirit and zest for life. Brodie writes an enthralling biography and anyone interested in this towering figure of the 19th century, this text is highly recommended.
Comment "For all those Burton iconclast worshippers out there, I guess it is and was common knowledge that Brodie wrote perhaps the finest biography on Burton. I had read two other bios, and although I never tire of a good Burton biography, this was perhaps the best. His early days in Sind are well recounted, he views on love, sex in the subcontinent, and his famous days in Mecca and African adventures are well told here... perhaps more than many it deals well with his initial frienship with John Hanning Speke...knowing that they were so different in personality it is perhaps inevitable that they fell out, but Brodie, also captures the spark of a respect that endured in Burton. The two men had shared immesurable pain and hardship, they relied upon each other to stay alive... In the end, the argument of the true source of the Nile may have just been the rift that separated two personalities that were already very far apart in temperment and opinion and stood no chance to get back together.

The book details more about the early life of Burton on the continent, the fact that he never considered himself British and functioned best when outside of British public life. Viewed as little better than a vagabond Burton functioned around the edges of British society, never staying very long in England (and usually hating it when he had to) and then being only regarded enough to obtain minor British Legation positions around the fringes of the world - his time spent as British Commissioner in Fernando Po in Equitorial Guinea after he had published a slough of books was only one case in point. His prediliction with the overly exotic (read sex), made him a hightly inconvenient person among upper-class circles.

I did not know that Brodie was the master of the psychological interpretation of historical personalities before reading this book. I think that more or less insulated me from this interpretation which, though strong, does not at all overwhelm the book.

Masterful... thank you Joe for the great recommendation. "
I can't decide which biography of Fawn Brodie that I like the best. This Life of Sir Richard Burton did not disappoint and my only complaint is that the narrative came to an end. His achievements in so many different fields is unbelievable and to go into all the aspects of his life would take volumes. She documents all the different fields of interest that Sir Richard studied during his life and helps us glimpse into the corners of his personality. If you like reading about the Victorian age of exploration and imperialism, you will enjoy this book.
The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton was a fascinating biography of an extraordinary man . I read the book originally many years ago, but through various moves, I lost my copy, but. I got it again from , and I read it on vacation to. HI, it's worth reading a second time