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A Rage to Live
05 September 2018 Mary S. Lovell 10
Their Marriage Was Both Improbable And Inevitable Isabel Arundell Was A Schoolgirl, The Scion Of England S Most Distinguished Catholic Family When She First Saw Him While Walking At A Seaside Resort, Richard Burton Had Already Made His Mark As A Linguist He Was Fluent In Twenty Nine Languages , Scholar, Soldier, And Explorer At Once A Symbol Of Victorian England S Vision Of Empire And An Avowed Rebel Against Its S When She Turned And Saw Him Staring After Her, She Decided That She Would Marry Him By Their Next Meeting, Burton Had Become The First Infidel To Infiltrate Mecca As One Of The Faithful, And, In An Expedition To Discover The Source Of The Nile, Would Soon Be The First White Man To See Lake Tanganyika After Being Married, The Burtons Traveled And Experienced The World, From Diplomatic Postings In Brazil And Africa To Hair Raising Adventures In The Syrian Desert In Later Life Richard Courted Further Controversy As A Self Proclaimed Erotologist And The Translator Of The Kama Sutra Based On Previously Unavailable Archives, Mary Lovell Has Written A Compelling Joint Biography That Sets Isabel In Her Proper Place As Burton S Equal In Daring And Endurance, A Fascinating Figure In Her Own Right. This is a great dual biography of Richard Burton the explorer, not the actor and his wife Isabel Burton was a fascinating man of the nineteenth century British Empire, and Isabel was his ideal mate a woman so compatible with the interests and ideas that fired Burton that one can only use the hackneyed phrase a match made in heaven This in spite of the fact that Burton was, practically speaking, an atheist, while Isabel was a firmly believing Catholic all her life though not, because of This is a great dual biograp
I have to admit that although this took me a long long time to read I was incredibly impressed with the amount of detail that seeped through the pages Perhaps the only other biography that I have read that compares and probably falls short to this in terms of detail is the biography of Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins Burton was an incredible incredible character the likes I just guess we will not get to see because people will be too distracted by technology to be interested in some of the fi I have to admit that although this took me a long long time to read I was incredibly impressed with the amount of detail that seeped through the pages Perhaps the only other biography that I have read that compares and probably falls short to this in terms of detail is the biography of Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins Burton was an incredible incredible character the likes I just guess we will not get to see because people wi
Sir Richard Burton has been an idol of mine since childhood This is the third biography I ve read of him, and it s simply the best I savored every paragraph of this book like it was a delicious steak Burton spoke 29 languages, was an avid swordsman, soldier, and fighter He explored the lake regions of Africa, helped solve the mystery of the source of the Nile, successfully snuck into Mecca, and wrote volumes about previously unstudied cultures around the world.Mary S Lovell really did her r Sir Richard Burton has been an idol of mine since childhood This is the third biography I ve read of him, and it s simply the best I savored every paragraph of this book like it was a delicious steak Burton spoke 29 languages, was an avid swordsman, soldier, and fighter He explored the lake regions of Africa, helped solve the mystery of the source of the Nile, successfully snuck into Mecca, and wrote volumes about previously unstudied cultures around the world.Mary S Lovell really did her research and turned up amazing new information that dispelled a lot of rumors that persisted about Burton, which I never thought sounded entirely true anyways Mainly, that his wife was not a hanger on, but an intelligent woman who was as close to being his equal as any woman could be at the time She was his stalwart supporter and talented in her own right.The des
This is the third biography that I have read of the 19th century explorer, adventurer, linguist, scholar, and Satan s body double Richard Francis Burton, and it is by far the best Yes, Burton, who was tall, broad shouldered, intimidating, and very dark, often shocked others with his Mephistophelean look it didn t help that Burton liked to shock As a young officer in British India, Burton learned several of the native languages and was able to pass, in the service of intelligence, as a trave This is the third biography that I have read of the 19th century explorer, adventurer, linguist, scholar, and Satan s body double Richard Francis Burton, and it is by far the best Yes, Burton, who was tall, broad shouldered, intimidating, and very dark, often shocked others with his Mephistophelean look it didn t help that Burton liked to
Mary Lovell has written a number of biographies of intrepid women, such as Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, and Jane Digby, so it should come as no surprise that she is nearly as focused here on Isabel as she is on Richard, infinitely thefamous of the two Personally, I ve always felt that Isabel was a bit of a harridan, but Lovell takes great pains to defend her and create abalanced picture here The Burtons had incredibly rich lives, and Lovell leaves few stones unturned as she descr Mary Lovell has written a number of biographies of intrepid women, such as Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, and Jane Digby, so it should come as no surprise that she is nearly as focused here on Isabel as she is on Richard, infinitely thefamous of the two Personally, I ve always felt that Isabel was a bit of a harridan, but Lovell takes great pains to defend her and cr
Very few people in history areinteresting than Richard Burton If Kipling had made him up in one of his books, he would have been too unbelievable Out of his long list of accomplishments, being the first person to tra
This is another great biography about Sir Richard But this one is centered on the intense love he had for his wife Isabel and her support of him throughout his adventurous career A wonderful book Devoured it from cover to cover A great
Of the remarkable things Burton did in his life, being married to Isabel Burton doesn t even make the list Rather than read about what their marriage was like, I yearn to understand why a man covered in scars from Sufi mystic dervish ceremonies, who soaked his skin in walnut oil to pose as an Egyptian physician on a Hajj, to sought
True RomanceA thoroughly researched, thoughtfully and intelligently written work about one of the great, but controversial men of the Victorian Era and of the wife who appears to have been his soul mate This is an incredible love story, e
I d give this 5 stars for the writing and research, but only 3 for the subject, so I ve made it an average of 4 Previously I ve thoroughly enjoyed several of Mary Lovell s biographies but this one didn t really work for me Don t get me wrong, it was as brilliantly researched as ever, it was beautifully written and it contained some fresh material What sMs Lovell isn t shy of giving her opinion, something I very much value in a biographer No, the problem was not the writer but the subje I d give this 5 stars for the writing and research, but only 3 for the subject, so I ve made it an average of 4 Previously I ve thoroughly enjoyed several of Mary Lovell s biographies but this one didn t really work for me Don t get me wrong, it was as brilliantly researched as ever, it was beautifully written and it contained some fresh material
Mary S. Lovell