This book tries to get in the head of Richard Burton the same way that Hilary Mantel's books get in Cromwell's head. There are three distinct segments. India is where he first learns to become fluent in the languages and customs of the local population (mostly to gather intelligence). He then goes on the Hajj. Finally he leads an expedition from Zanzibar to the source of the Nile. Each segment is told partly from Burton's point of view and partly from the view of a servant or local official. For example, Ottoman officials try to figure out whether Burton's a spy.I happen to like this sort of historical fiction. Lots of detail and almost a psychological approach. Beautiful writing. But it's a slow pace. 3.5 stars.Writing:Burton's first munshi's house is "barely wider than a cow.""What's the definition of an angle, Dick?"..."The difference between orthodoxy and heresy?"..."The difference between two directions actually." . . . "So I was more or less right?"No one gets to the middle of their thirties without being disappointed in themselves at least once.He was a person who could sometimes check over his opinions, the way people in villages check over their houses after the rainy season, and sometimes he'd change his opinion afterwards . . . . “Weltensammler” in the original German but the “worlds” in the title could equally have been “words” as I misread it when I picked up the book in Kingston Canberra recently. This best seller from a Bulgarian born writer is a fictionalised account of Richard Burton’s historic and notorious journeys to India, Mecca and the source of the Nile in Africa. Burton as a young subaltern with the East India Company in India before the mutiny was a wonderful autodidact who became fascinated with languages, religions and culture. From the wrong class, he was bored and in trouble with his fellow officers in Gujurat so he seizes the opportunity to use his interests as a cover by volunteering to be a spy for his commanding officer. This gets him away from the army base for long periods of travel in disguise as a Moslem Dervish.The three sections of the novel are brilliantly alive through the narrative variations that Troyanov uses. Burton’s Indian servant asks a letter writer to compose an application for his new job after Burton has left but the scribe becomes so fascinated with his story that their sessions extend and these are interspersed with a third person narrative from the point of view of Burton. In the Arabian part two this method is varied to include an investigatory dialog by the “Sharif” of Mecca and the Governor of Jeddah into how Burton, an apparent unbeliever managed to take part in the Hajj and whether he was a spy or not. Burton’s point of view continues in the disguise of an Indian doctor, Sheikh Abdullah. In the final section in central Africa, Burton’s story is shared with the later narration of his African guide retelling the story to his friends in Zanzibar. This part is dominated by the noxious rivalry between the joint leaders of the expedition to find the source of the Nile, Burton and John Hanning Speke and I found that much less interesting because the fascination with the Hindu and Islamic cultures was replaced with the physical and mental hardship of the Victorian explorers who, of course were following well established caravan routes to find the lakes that the Africans and Arabs already knew about.Burton is also famous as the translator of The Thousand and One Nights, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and The Kama Sutra as well as being the sensational author of the one of the first travel books describing his journey to Mecca and his full participation in the Hajj ceremonies (his disguise was complete with many languages and a circumcision painfully acquired as an adult in India). Wisely this writer Troyanov does not focus on these achievements but tells an engaging story of Burton and his interaction with the many vivid characters whom he creates to share Burton’s amazing stories.
Do You like book De Wereldverzamelaar (2006)?
Това нещо е нечетяемо. Направо щях да заспя
—rie_dominique
Interesting - but tough to follow the multiple narrators. Momentum flags.
—ralph
Interesting plot, but I found the writing episodic.
—Maica
So different, so interesting, so capturing :)
—bludolphin1105
