books:

	A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton Mary S. Lovell W. W. Norton & Company, 2000 - 944 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

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Having read the other reader reviews on this book I was struck by one person opining that there wasn't enough discussion on Burton's books in here. I would say that there is enough. This is a biography and it covers an awful lot of ground. Each of Burton's books was about his travel, and each trip is minutely detailed in which Lovell uses not just his books, but his notes, his letters, and other sources to track not just his trips, but the dynamics of his relationships with others. I also think it is fair to say that Lovell has talked about the impact his books made on society - certainly many of his books are still in print and in some cases are still used as text books in modern Eastern study as they are still considered relevant.

Both the Burton's come alive under Lovell's pen. Isabel's intense love for Burton - and his for her. Lovell is careful in discussing each of Burton's controversies in life such as his falling out with Speke, and his inability to seem to get on with other men (Rigby, Playfair, the Ambassador while as Consul in Damascus and so on). Again these petty political battles are carefully detailed and the entire growth of each situation shown. Lovell demonstrates how many of Burton's strengths were also his greatest failings. He had a huge intellect, great intellegence but little patience and diplomacy to follow his calling in the Foreign Office. His energy was generally spent on his exploring in which he was ably supported and often accompanied by his wife, Isabel. Certainly with as many enemies as Burton managed to make, coupled with his ironic sense of humour he managed to leave behind a mythology of a rather horrid nature what he did and didn't do. He was fond of telling self-deprecating stories to people - at the expense of his reputation. Lovell has sifted through these rumours and misinformation to find the real man and his exploits underneath. These are no less amazing only less voilent.

Burton was a scholar and a linguist of some note. While in India he learnt a number of the major dialects and would have been officially noted as the foremost scholar in the field had not professional jealousies prevented him from being credited with his last language exams. Certainly he passed top in his class in each of his exams. He opened up inner Africa for future European explorers making it possible for them to confirm the source of the Nile, he also was the first European to make the Haj as a disguised as a muslim - and these are just a few of the explorations he undertook.

I think Isabel comes off a lot better under Lovell's pen than I have read about her before. She has also suffered a great deal of bad press in the past - again her own deeds are obfuscated by rumour and dislike. She was not the most likeable woman in the world, but in conclusion I did feel she was the only woman who could have matched Burton, especially in that stultifying conventional world which Victorian England limited their women to inhabiting.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a long read - hard to do with a young baby handing around - but each chapter was almost like a new story. Lovell was excellent in tying each chapter in the Burton's life together into a fresh story - a fresh outlook on the Burton's altogether a satisfying read.

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Not Perfect, but there is no option for 4.5 stars

A Rage to Live by Mary Lovell is an outstanding biography of both Sir Richard and the Lady Burton. Burton is about the only person that I have bothered to read multiple biograhies of. He was so complex and his life was just THAT interesting! There are a few other treatments of Sir Richard still in print, and Lovell takes these into account in her own telling. A great deal of data are available for the first time in this book, and the author uses this information adroitly to clear up long-standing misconceptions (and outright slanders) of both Burtons.

Lovell provides a good bit of compelling discussion about the conflict between Burton and John Hanning Speke over the source of the Nile. It has been common for Burton biographers to over-simplify the nature of the disagreement: Burton thought the Nile originated in Lake Tanganyika, Speke argued for Victoria Nyanza. Not so! Speke only really WANTED the source of the Nile to be Victoria (the lake, not the queen), whereas Burton, a Man of Science, argued that the observations at hand were insufficient to decide one way or the other. With the available information, Burton understood that Tanganyika or some as yet unknown spring could still have been the head of the Nile. Lovell explains well the behind-the-scenes wrangling at the Royal Geographical Society by Burton's detractors to back Speke as much out of spite as any other reason.

What really compelled me to read A Rage to Live -- besides what might best be called an obsession of the man -- was my desire to learn more about the Lady Burton, Isabel. She was an independent and interesting person herself, but she has been abused at the hands of other Burton biographers. To them, Isabel was an over-zealous Catholic, the schemer ready to use her influence and Richard's name for her own advancement, and the arsonist of Burton's papers and manuscript of the Scented Garden. Lovell makes the case that this is hogwash, the previous biographers have given too much credit to the bigoted opinions of Richard's spinster niece. Among the new information provided by Lovell's research is the fact that Richard was instructing Isabel what to write on his behalf. She was very much his partner in all aspects of their life together, and Lovell's story does provide some justice for the Lady Burton. Most significantly, Lovell demonstrates that Isabel burned at Trieste what Richard had instructed her to burn, and that many important papers did indeed survive.

A Rage to Live is an enormous volume, more than 900 pages -- my train ride to and from work has been considerably lightened since I finished reading the book. It has the best maps of the recent Burton biographies, but the fewest illustrations. Sources are well documented. Previous reviewers have commented upon the state of the editing of this book; they make some good points. But speaking (NOT speke-ing) as someone who has tried to read everything that they can find by and about Sir Richard Francis Burton, Lovell's A Rage to Live is the best single source on the subject.

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Best so far -- but PLEASE . . . (!)

(1) This is the definitive biography to date of the incredible Sir Richard and Lady Burton. No question about it.

(2) The author provides a significant amount of never-before-published information and reveals the existence of yet more --- which encourages us to think that Burton scholarship is entering a Golden Age.

(3) The author deserves a lot of credit in many different respects.

(4) What is crazy-making, therefore, is how appallingly slipshod the editing and proofreading was for this book. I gave up counting the typographical, factual, and stylistic mistakes.

(5) The editors and proofreaders of this book should be drummed out of the business. It's an absolute disgrace.

(6) 5 stars for the book anyway . . .

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A comprehensive analysis of Burton's life

The author has done a very good job of investigative research and provides likely answers for many of the mysteries surrounding Burton's life (and loves). This seems the best researched biography of the fascinating Sir Richard Francis Burton.


The final word? No. Illuminating? Definitely.

Author Lovell clearly wants to refurbish Isabel Burton's image, and she has done so. In doing so, Lovell does not appear to have let the desire to attain that goal outrun the evidence at hand. Indeed, Lovell provides the reader with a considerable body of previously unknown and/or unused material which supports her contention that Isabel Burton---long branded as some sort of religion-filled and -frenzied lunatic---was of a piece with many other Victorian women who actually helped their husband's careers immeasurably. (Consider, for example, Elizabeth Custer, wife of George Armstrong Custer.) This book is not the end-all-be-all for those interested in Richard Burton, however, for there is actually very little in the way of detail about his travels and experiences. This makes sense when the narrative hits areas Burton himself purposely left blank (his Indian years, forinstance). But this approach makes for problems in areas Burton purposely highlighted. I enjoyed the book as a book, and found Lovell a stylish writer who alerts her readers to her own biases (always welcome in a historian). But for those who have read about Burton before this could---stress on "could"---be an oddly unsatisfying piece of work. For those who come to the subject fresh, or wish to round out their understandings about this intriguing couple (hence the "could" caveat above), this is a wonderful book. It is, after all, not all about Richard (although Richard might've thought so; yet even here, Lovell makes him a good deal more rounded in his sensibilities and sensitivities than many who've earlier given him a go ). The book is about a couple, and within those parameters it is a solid and fascinating volume.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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