Edward Rice (1) (1918–2001)

I am in the midst of reading a number of biographies and by doing so, feel better able to evaluate the relative merits of each. In general, I find biographies to be one of the best methods of reading and understanding history, especially when the subject is a historical figure of great significance to world changing events. Other biographies serve to highlight individuals who have had an impact on their era or specialty. This biography of Sir Richard Burton falls in the latter category, for while he certainly participated in many of the great historical events of his era, he was not exactly front and center, or widely associated with them (African exploration excepted). He was instead a highly original, fascinating individual, who certainly deserves recognition and study.

It is for that reason that I found this work so disappointing. It is quite an achievement to author a biography of Sir Richard Burton and leave the reader bored and generally disinterested. A person with the lifetime of activities, successes and yes, failures boasted by Burton deserves better. Burton served Her Majesty’s government for his entire adult life, first as an officer in the military wing of the East India Company, then as a clandestine operative in various postings throughout Asia and Africa, before finally becoming a consular figure at a variety of backwater postings. He is perhaps best known for his participation in the search for and discovery of the source of the White Nile, Lake Victoria. It was the allegations and incriminations that were generated from these expeditions, and his rivalry with John Hanning Speke that account for a large part of his notoriety.

However, the African expeditions were only a small part of his life, which included an undercover trip to Mecca along with numerous other dangerous travels and discoveries. Burton was quite the author, penning dozens of works detailing both his explorations, as well as translations of what were then obscure literary works from the areas in which he traveling, for he was quite the cunning linguist, being conversant in many tongues and dialects.

With such an interesting subject, you would think a captivating and engaging biography would be hard to avoid, but the author here bogs down again and again in minutia which brings little to the story. Roughly the first third of the book, dealing largely with Burton’s dalliance with Islamic religious practices is borderline unreadable except as a sleep aid. The book also engages in relatively extreme hagiography, not unusual in many biographies, but excessive at times. The author criticizes the British government for failing to appreciate and reward Burton for his efforts on its behalf, but he seemed to spend the biggest part of his time traveling throughout the world while supposedly on duty. Despite constant complaints of penury, he doesn’t seem to have missed any trips.

Finally, this was a paperback with two sections of photographs. Unfortunately, the photographs were virtually completely illegible because they were printed on cheap paper. Imagine printing a photograph on a grocery sack and you can imagine the quality of photos in this book. In other words, this work is a wasted effort in my opinion.… (meer)