The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton

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A Fascinating Life Well Presented in this Biography

Indiana Jones in the flesh...

Intriquing and Sometimes Painful

WONDERFUL BIOGRAPHY - I AM GRATEFUL FOR THIS ONE

Towering Individual of the 19th Century

The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton
Fawn McKay Brodie
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393301664

Book Description

"Starting in a hollowed log of wood--some thousand miles up a river with infinitesimal prospect of returning, I ask myself `Why?' and the only echo is `damned fool!...the Devil drives.'"

So wrote Richard Francis Burton, while preparing for an exploration of the lower Congo in 1863. Tormented by the question of "why?", his answer "the devil drives" applies not only to his explorations, but to the whole of his turbulent life. The nature of his demon, the source of his restlessness, has baffled many biographers.

Drawing from Burton's own published works and from the few manuscripts that managed to escape destruction by Lady Burton, Fawn Brodie explains the "why?" and in doing so creates a fascinating portrait.

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating Life Well Presented in this Biography.......2007-09-03

The author presents a very thoroughly researched and well written biographical book on a fascinating life of an early British explorer of East Africa (Burton was the first European explorer to report his "findings" of what is today called Lake Tangenyika). At times the presentation can become tedious but on the whole this is a book well worth reading and a life well worth knowing more about. Beyond his explorations Burton lived, wrote, fought, loved and experienced life to the fullest extent. As many of the other comments from other readers have suggested, his life and how he lived it can be a positive inspiration.

Indiana Jones in the flesh..........2007-04-23

Richard Burton was an enigmatic, sour, oftentimes neurotic voyeur with the intention of beating his contemporaries and traveling the globe learning and exposing the cultures he came across. Ms. Brodie also has a tie with writing other biographies of sensational men (Joseph Smith, Jr of Mormon fame) and this book is an educated insight into Richard Burton's travels, motives, and surroundings. The maps included along with photographs, illustrations, and excerpts of Burton's own words help move the narrative along. It can be 'old English' tedious, but is well worth the delve into a man that went against the grain in every way.

Intriquing and Sometimes Painful.......2006-11-20

This is a captivating account of a unique and restless individual driven to observe and graphically document the often very cruel life of the Middle East and Africa in the nineteenth-century. This will not bore.

WONDERFUL BIOGRAPHY - I AM GRATEFUL FOR THIS ONE.......2006-07-06

I read this one years ago, when it was first published. This was my first expierence and admittedly my first encounter with this remarkable man. This has lead me, over the years, to read much more of Sir Richard Burton. Each work I read, each bit of information I gather, I am even for fascinated with this individual, his accomplishments and his writings. This has been a nice reading hobby for me over the past number of year and it all started with Ms. Brodie's work. I am grateful. The book is well written, well researched and is very, very readable. Highly recommend this one.

Towering Individual of the 19th Century.......2004-11-22

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.

The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton

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The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton

Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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The Devil Drives - A Life Of Sir Richard Burton
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The Devil Drives A Life of Sir Richard Burton
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Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard
Richard Francis, 1821-1890 Burton
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
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The Devil Drives: A Life Of Sir Richard Burton
Fawn M. Brodie
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
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The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton
Fawn M. Brodie
Manufacturer: Norton
ProductGroup: Book
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The Devil Drives: a Life Story of Sir Richard Burton

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The Devil Drives: a Life Story of Sir Richard Burton
Fawn M. Brodie
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M1KNJA

Book Description

The Greatest War is an American-combat history of what Studs Turkel dubbed the good war, World War II, told largely in the words of the American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who were there.

Customer Reviews:

EXCELLENT OVERVIEW.......2006-01-30

OUTSIDE OF THE VERY NEGATIVE REVIEWS, AND THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO THEIR OPINION, I FOUND THIS BOOK AN EXCELLENT OVERVIEW OF COMBAT IN WW II, ESPECIALLY SMALL UNITS. LOOK, NOBODY GETS EVERYTHING RIGHT IN A BOOK THAT TRIES TO COVER SO MUCH, BUT THE AUTHOR BY AND LARGE DID AN EXCELLENT JOB. I AM 61 YEARS OLD, A LIFETIME SCHOLAR OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, AND WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS TO SOMEONE STARTING OUT, OR SOMEONE THAT WANTS A GOOD IDEA OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE FROM SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE. SEMPER FI

The Greatest War by Gerald Astor.......2002-07-16

Yesterday I sent you a criticism of this book.It was quite negative and neither it nor the 1-star rating I gave it were published.

DO YOU PUBLISH ONLY FAVORABLE REVIEWS?
MY 1-STAR RATING WAS ALSO NOT PUBLISHED.

The Greatest War.......2002-07-15

This book contains quotations from participants that are totally
erroneous.For one, I was the only witness with T/Sgt.Beauford T. Anderson on Kakazu Ridge on Okinawa in the early morning hours of April 13th 1945 when he threw mortar shells by hand at the Japanese soldiers.In fact, I was the one who handed the shells to him, and there were no other witnesses,as stated in the book.The rest of our platoon remained inside the concrete burial vault.
When daylight came he left to report to the Observation Post and received a gunshot wound through the flesh of his arm on the way.All the rest of this day's activities by Sgt,Anderson as stated in the book are a fabrication.
I know this all to be a fact since it was I who wrote the citation that resulted in his receiving the Medal of Honor for his outstanding feat.
Hans Kaufmann , Co.A 381st Infantry, 96th Division.

An Infantry Man's View.......2000-10-24

As an Infantry man in WW II,( 25th Divison, 35 Inf. Regt)I have been there done that, seen that. This book tells the reader what it was like, How it stunk, The hurt, frustration, and most of all the "ugly" side of all wars.

The Greatest War: Americans in Combat 1941-1945

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The Greatest War: Americans in Combat 1941-1945
Gerald Astor
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
ProductGroup: Book
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Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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Conspiracies ancient and modern

Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History
Victoria Emma Pagán
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0292705611

Book Description

"This often provocative book... is a significant contribution to the field, for there is no comparable study."

—David Potter, University of Michigan, author of Literary Texts and the Roman Historian

Conspiracy is a thread that runs throughout the tapestry of Roman history. From the earliest days of the Republic to the waning of the Empire, conspiracies and intrigues created shadow worlds that undermined the openness of Rome's representational government. To expose these dark corners and restore a sense of order and safety, Roman historians frequently wrote about famous conspiracies and about how their secret plots were detected and the perpetrators punished. These accounts reassured readers that the conspiracy was a rare exception that would not happen again—if everyone remained vigilant.

In this first book-length treatment of conspiracy in Roman history, Victoria Pagán examines the narrative strategies that five prominent historians used to disclose events that had been deliberately shrouded in secrecy and silence. She compares how Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus constructed their accounts of the betrayed Catilinarian, Bacchanalian, and Pisonian conspiracies. Her analysis reveals how a historical account of a secret event depends upon the transmittal of sensitive information from a private setting to the public sphere—and why women and slaves often proved to be ideal transmitters of secrets. Pagán then turns to Josephus's and Appian's accounts of the assassinations of Caligula and Julius Caesar to explore how the two historians maintained suspense throughout their narratives, despite readers' prior knowledge of the outcomes.

Customer Reviews:

Conspiracies ancient and modern.......2005-04-02

This is a fascinating and riveting book that unfortunately probably will appeal more to academicians than the public. Its topic is the five written conspiracy stories about the assassinations and threats to ancient Roman rulers.

The first three are of failed, or betrayed, conspiracies:

Catiline's conspiracy to assassinate two Roman consuls after he was disqualified from office for electoral bribery, betrayed by Fulvia (a woman), as told by Sallust 20 years after the fact (called the Catilinarian Conspiracy); the Bacchic religious cult's threat of a counter state as betrayed by another woman Hispala, as told by Livy 100 years afterwards, called the Baccanalian Conspiracy; and the aborted plot by Piso against Nero betrayed by Epicharis (a woman), as related by Tacitus, called the Pisonian Conspiracy written 100 years from the event. In each case women were the betrayers of the failed plots, thereby thwarting conspiracies and preserving the political status quo.

The last two stories are about successful conspiracies: the assassination of Caligula by three conspirators as told by Josephus whereby the actress Quintilia was tortured for not revealing the plot; and the assassination of Julius Caesar by a cabal of Roman Senators led by Brutus whose wife showed her loyalty to keep the plot secret by intentionally cutting herself to show she was prepared to endure pain rather than reveal the plot, as told by Appian.

This work is feminist in the best, non-politically correct, use of the term. The book is enhanced by the author's acute perception of the role of women and slaves in channeling secrets to those in power. This is the first study of Roman political conspiracies. The book is well-written, albeit the author employs words not often used that will drive readers to their English and Latin dictionaries (e.g., pleonasms, polysyndeton, aepilship, hermeneutic tension, etc.). The book is exhaustively researched. The only drawback is that the author glosses over the complex conspiracy plots so it is hard to follow what the conspiracy was all about in the first place.

The author does not call the written accounts of each conspiracy a history but a narrative or story which she reveals often had their own spin and agendas. Because conspiracies necessarily involve secrecy she admits we don't and can't know much about them. This goes for modern conspiracies as well.
The first and last chapters tantalizingly touch on the modern conspiracy of Watergate during the Nixon presidency. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the role of Jean Hill, the only witness with an unrestricted view of the shooting, is also touched on.
But Watergate isn't conventionally known as a conspiracy against a politician but as a conspiracy against another political party; unless it was a counter-conspiracy after all. Oddly, the author doesn't bring up the role of Martha Mitchell in the Watergate scandal. There even is a term called the Martha Mitchell Effect, which is a process by which a belief if mistakenly diagnosed as a delusion by a psychiatrist. Martha Mitchell was the wife of John Mitchell, the Attorney General in the Nixon Administration, who alleged that illegal activity was taking place in the White House. At the time her claims were thought to be signs of mental illness, and only after the Watergate scandal was she proved right (and hence sane).
The book evokes consideration of the 9/11 conspiracy and mass murder. Didn't we hear newspaper stories about a Saudi Royal Princess who gave aid and support to the terrorists and who, apparently never betrayed the plot?
I give the book five stars with the caveat that unfortunately it is addressed to an audience of the author's peers in academia rather than the public. But for anyone who wants to read about historical conspiracies and how they are similar to modern ones, or who wants to know how to keep one secret, I would recommend this book.

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Conspiracy Narratives in Roman History
Victoria Emma Pagán
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000ORLAE4

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