Paths Without Glory: Richard Francis Burton in Africa
“Key to an understanding of [Africa’s] history.”“Historians and scholars of the golden age of empire, as well as armchair adventurers, will not only discover what defined this famously enigmatic figure, but venture themselves into the heart of mid-nineteenth-century Africa.”“At last an authority on Africa has taken up the story of Richard Burton in Africa. James L. Newman provides us with a richly informative account of Burton’s African journeys, enlivened by a crisp and engaging prose style.”“I thought James L. Newman’s book about Henry Morton Stanley was wonderful—Paths Without Glory, his biographical account of Richard F. Burton, is better. Newman’s primary focus is on Burton’s relationship with Africa and Africans, yet throughout his prolific literary output, the famous English explorer is shown to be a not so benevolent racist, as well as a congenitally disgruntled and unhappy traveler. This book is hard to put down.”