Explorers Of The Nile: The Triumph And Tragedy Of A Great Victorian Adventure (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
For anyone who has read the Alan Moorhead books, this is an interesting fleshing out of the history. Thanks to exhaustive research on the Burton and Speke explorations, the author is able to reveal the deeper truths behind their antagonism of their relationship including Burton's treachery and Speke's frustration with Burton's pettiness. Other interesting updates were also made to the Livingstone & Stanley histories. The book focuses its narrative in great detail both within the African continent as well as the machinations it took back in Britain to get to the next adventure. This detail was worked to bog down passages within the African sections, without fulling explaining the how and why. It could've been condensed. Ultimately, the investment pays off with the final section of the book which follows the history of modern post-colonial Uganda from 1900 to present. Hard work, but I enjoyed it. This book describes the lives of various explorers of the source of the Nile. They were an intrepid group – they had to be – the search was more than arduous through a vast terrain infested with multiple parasites (mosquitoes, tsetse flies...). They would have to bargain for rights of passage with the different indigenous peoples they encountered who were also fighting with slave dealers.As the author points out these individuals (David Livingstone, Richard Burton, Samuel Baker and his to be spouse Florence von Sass, and Henry Stanley) were not empire builders – they were strong individualists who could not fit into the mainstream of their society. Mr. Jeal illustrates well the rivalries (and friendships) that evolved between them and their benefactors.Unfortunately what they did, led to empire building as the author demonstrates in the last quarter of his book.For a further depiction of Henry Stanley see the magnificent book “Stanley” by this same author.
What do You think about Explorers Of The Nile: The Triumph And Tragedy Of A Great Victorian Adventure (2011)?
It suffers from a lack of maps, but otherwise this is up to Jeal's usual high standards of writing
—maggi
Epic. So much I didn't know I didn't know!
—Hamidi
