Sword & the Cross: The Conquest of the Sahara - Hardcover

Fleming, Fergus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1862075271 ISBN 13: 9781862075276

Publisher: Granta Books, 2003

Synopsis

At the end of the 19th century, who would want to conquer the Sahara, a vast and hellish desert? France did, and this is the story of the two fanatical adventurers who made it possible. It is a dark and strange tale of survival in a harsh environment, extreme religious zeal, imperial dreams and violent death. This is a vivid, haunting and sharply witty history of a forgotten episode in Europe's colonial crusade, a narrative of self-sacrifice and cruelty, hatred and friendship, discovery and delusion, set against a backdrop of oceans of burning sand and waterless mountains of black rock.

About this title

Review:

The Sword and the Cross is a captivating tale of two French adventurers, one military and one spiritual, who helped to tame the desolate wilderness of the Sahara. Born in the mid 19th century into aristocratic families Charles de Foucauld and Henri Laperrine became soldiers and explorers. Foucauld was dramatically converted to Catholicism and left the French army to follow a way of self-denial so great that even the Trappist order seemed easy. He lived in the Sahara among the barbaric Touareg tribes as a hermit. However he never lost contact with Laperrine and the French imperialist dream, supporting his countryman with intelligence and contacts throughout his life. Laperrine admired and supported Foucauld. Fergus Fleming tells the story of their friendship and collaboration with verve, precision and a restrained passion.

It is difficult to fault this book. Fleming has the insight to unfold a fascinating historical period through the lives of two of its key players. Laperrine and Foucauld are fascinating and contradictory characters on their own, but weaving their two stories together is a brilliant stroke as both men reveal a different but vital aspect of the French character and the motivation for France's strange zeal for the conquest of the Sahara. Fleming tells a story of high romance, but with British detachment and insight. He weaves meticulous detail into an easy style and narrates a complicated story with confidence. As such, he has given us both a serious historical study and a rip-roaring adventure yarn. --Dwight Longenecker

Review:

‘A well-researched yarn of two desert adventurers...but [also a] timely account of what happens when an imperialist nation seeks to expand its power’ -- Irish Times

‘Fleming is a wonderful writer, who fleshes out thorough research with vivid vignettes of the people involved and their world...a dynamic narrative’ -- Traveller

‘Thoroughly absorbing tale of French triumphs and disasters in the Sahara’ -- Literary Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1862075271
• ISBN 13: 9781862075276
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400