Richard Burton

No, not the Welsh actor and paramour of Elizabeth Taylor, but the 19th century English Scholar-Adventurer: Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton.

I've been rereading Edward Rice's Biography of Burton, and am thoroughly enjoying it. I think I'd still give the nod to Fawn Brodie's The Devil Drives as the "definitive" telling of Burton's story, but Rice is a close, if idiosyncratic, second. In my book, only Burton fanatics should bother with the psycho-babbling Snow upon the Desert by Frank McLynn, to whom I'd be glad to put the old anti-Freudian quip: "But did Oedipus have an 'Oedipus Complex'?"!

Hardly any book, and certainly no summary here, could do justice to the spectacle that was Burton's life, but perhaps a few tidbits could inspire one to learn a bit about this singular, polymathic man.

Burton was born in 1821, and raised by a family headed by an itinerant, restless father, who dragged the Burtons around Europe, sowing the seeds for Richard's linguistic achievements (he allegedly mastered 29 languages, plus many dialects, in the course of his life) and his wanderlust.

After a rebellious childhood and dissolute adolescence, Burton was kicked out of Oxford, and managed to weedle dear old dad into buying him a commission in the service of that mercantilist monstrosity which is the bogeyman of any self-respecting Marxist, "John Company," a.k.a. the East India Company (yep, a company with its own military!).

Quickly excelling at, and finishing first in stringent government examinations for, Eastern tongues - Hindustani, Gujarati, Persian, et al. - Burton put his polyglot powers, derring-do, and swarthy complexion to good effect by impersonating natives in and around modern Pakistan (viz., Sindh, Baluchistan, etc.) as a conniver and intriguer in the "Great Game" which pitted the English against the Russians for domination of Central Asia.

Along the way, countless esoteric religions and cults are penetrated and "tried on," and innumerable members of the fairer sex are persuaded as to Burton's charms.

He apparently underwent the knife, so as to perfect at least his disguise - and possibly his genuine identity - as a Muslim, from the waist down (ouch); a modification that was useful in Burton's making the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina under the guise of an Eastern Muslim (yet flirting with a young lady at a key moment, instead of observing religious austerities).

Other "highlights" include an arduous expedition, accompanied by a rival (John Hanning Speke), seeking the source of the Nile throughout regions of Africa never seen or survived by white wayfarers - often being carried by retainers for weeks at a time, under the incapaciting influence of malaria, blindness, etc. Yet, all the while, Burton is a superb observer and recorder of minutiae, putting most ethnographers and anthropologists to shame with his keen, empathic eye.

Burton even made it over to the States, having an audience with Brigham Young in Salt Lake City, and panned for gold in Sacramento and bivouacked in San Francisco for a week or so.

And he married a nice Catholic Girl (well, a Catholic Girl!) ...

I think that biography is a great, engaging way to learn some history, and the backdrop of Burton's incredible life - the glory and the shame that was the British Empire - provides the exciting scene for his nearly unrivalled adventures. Amazing.