Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered the Kama Sutra, and Brought the Arabian Nights to th

RFB was no angel, but definitely one of my heros- an adventurers of the 1800 when so much of the world was alien, unfamiliar, and exotic. Another reviewer compares him to Indiana Jones, and it's not a bad comparison. While cowboys were taming the wild frontier of the American West, this Brit was playing cowboy in the Old World. He explored the origin of the Nile to Lake Victoria, when it was completely unknown, and widely-regarded as hostile territory. He wandered India and the Middle East, not as a tourist, but so proficient in several of the local languages that he was able to pass himself off as native! Unlike so many British adventurers, RFB respected the indiginous peoples of the lands he was exploring- indeed, was prone to "go native", which often put him at a distance from his countrymen, but made possible the incredibly rich, fascinating life described in this book. I have recommended this to several people, and always received enthusiastic feedback.

This review applies to the A.D. 1990 Volume: "Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Secret Agent Who Made The Pilgrimage To Mecca, Discovered The Kama Sutra, and Brought The Arabian Nights To The West," written by Edward Rice and published by Charles Scribner's Sons, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York City, NY. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-10898. Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) is without question one of the most remarkable men of the Nineteenth Century. This text covers the exploits of the man who was the towering intellectual and physical specimen, face scarred by a Somali warrior's spear; Burton the scholar and author; Burton the scientist, soldier, explorer, and British undercover agent to boot. Burton was one of the very first Europeans to seek the source of the Nile River in Central Africa, as daring then as a trip to the moon now. He was the first European to reach Lake Tanganyika. In disguise he went to the forbidden cities of Mecca and Medina. He was the first European to penetrate the sacred city of Harar in the unexplored East Africa. It was Burton who brought out to the Western World the classic Indian book on sex, the "Kama Sutra." And--perhaps his most celebrated achievement--Burton did the seventeen volume translation of the classic "Arabian Nights." Burton had mastered some twenty-nine languages and dialects and operated as an undercover agent while employed as an officer for the East India Company in India. On one secret mission, Burton investigated the Mormons of Utah, the subject of his book "The City of the Saints." On another trip to the Western Hemisphere Burton explored the battlefields of Paraguay out of which came a book about the war between Paraguay and Brazil. Fascinated by swords Burton wrote a comprehensive treatise on the subject which is still in print today; "The Book of The Sword." Burton also served as a diplomat in Trieste, Damascus, and as envoy to Dahome so as to convince the West African King to stop the celebration of the Dahoman custom of human sacrifice and cannibalism and to desist in the slave trade: "It was barbaric and of an unlimited cruelty (the celebration of custom in Dahomey). Burton did not see any executions, but in deference to him--or to his Queen--the victims were slaughtered at night--"the evil nights," said Burton--the King cutting off the first head himself. Nine men perished in the first slaughter, the victims being decapitated and castrated after death, "in respect," wrote Burton, "to the royal wives." In all, Burton counted twenty-three male victims. He was told that eighty perished during the five days of the custom, and some five-hundred during the year. Women criminals were executed by "officers of their own sex, within the palace walls, not in the presence of men," a fact that he could not resist emphasizing later: 'Dahome is there one point more civilized than Great Britain, where they still, wonderous to relate, 'hang away' even women,

This was an incredible biography, which was much better than Byron Farewell's much dryer work. This version- all 500 pages of it- reads like an epic novel, full of mind twists and adventures. Picture emerges Burton the what he was, a towering intellectual, an intrepid explorer. A compulsive writer who churned out massively detailed works between his exploits of discovery in the wilds of India, Arabia, and Black Africa, scandalizing Victorian England mostly by his views on female sexual liberation (he translated the Kama Sutra) or to the superiority of Islam over Pauline Christianity- although Rice mistakenly concluded that Burton was a faithful convert to this religion for most of his life (he seems rather to have been a confirmed skeptic). In an age of hypocrisy, he certainly stands out as a not afraid to speak his mind- and he had a lot of opinions.

It is one of the most comprehensive biographies I have ever read. The book literally changed my life. The adventures and the knowledge that Richard Burton undertook and learned can fill 100 lifetimes. I have worked (albeit unsuccessfully) to approach the intensity of this man's life. It is so rewarding to read about a man who was the scholar and the adventurer and who leaves the reader with a sense of awe that one man can accomplish as much as he did. The book is great not only because it tells of Burton, but because in the process of learning about him, you vicariously learn about unknown cultures and esoteric knowledge that would take volumes to fill. It takes you on a journey to another world.