Into Africa - Hardcover

Dugard, Martin

4.13

6,928 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 059304956X ISBN 13: 9780593049563

Publisher: Bantam Press, 2003

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In 1866, Britain's foremost explorer, David Livingstone, went in search of the source of the Nile. He was not seen again for nearly six years. This was not the first long term expedition Livingstone had undertaken, but it was rare for him not to send regular reports back to London. To all intents and purposes he had disappeared into the African jungle. The British government made no efforts to try and trace Livingstone, believing it an impossible task. Five years after his disappearance, however, the quest was taken up by an American newspaper, the "New York Herald". The "Herald"'s ambitious, eccentric (and circulation hungry) publisher, James Gordon Bennett, sent his top reporter, one Henry Stanley, to track Livingstone down. So began Stanley's African odyssey which was to culminate ten months later with the famous phrase "Dr Livingstone, I presume". History has portrayed Stanley as a great adventurer, the intrepid explorer who braved the African wilderness to find the ailing Livingstone. This account tells a slightly different story. Dugard argues that Stanley was at a loss in Africa, had little experience of travel and was out of his depth in this strange and foreign land, having to rely entirely on his guides. He was petrified by this wild land and often struck down by tropical illness. The man who led him to Livingstone, the man who deserves the credit which Stanley has since been lauded with, was his guide, Sidi Mubarak Bombay. But Stanley's journey was an emotional as well as a physical one. Arriving in Africa he was frightened by the scale and strangeness of this new land, ignorant of the local culture, and belligerent in his belief in colonial supremacy. But slowly as his journey progressed he awoke to the beauty of Africa, the grandeur of her landscape and the vivid diversity of her wildlife. Here is a true adventure story, set against the most dramatic of backdrops and featuring two of history's most enduring heroes.

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Review:

"'Fresh and vivid...Dugard retells this great story very effectively'" (Sunday Express)

"'Measured and assured. His researches have unearthed considerable material and he has assembled it with care...genuinely gripping, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of exploration'" (Sunday Telegraph)

"'Its great strength lies in taking a story you thought you knew well and telling you so many things of which you had no idea'" (Daily Mail)

"'It is one of the most exciting stories in the annals exploration, has one of the most extraordinary denouements, and gave rise to the wonderfully inept line, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" Henry Morton Stanley's 1871 mission to rescue the good doctor in deepest Africa has been told dozens of times before...yet the story is good enough to withstand retelling and Martin Dugard obliges with gusto...Dugard's focus is not the search for the source of the Nile, but the characters and events that led to the famous meeting...he weaves a tight and gripping narrative...and his portrait of 19th-century Africa is vivid and convincing - you can feel the mixture of heart-stirring beauty and soul-stirring horror'" (The Sunday Times)

"'One cracking adventure story...will keep you turning the pages well into the night, I promise you'" (Bill Bryson)

Book Description:

The gripping and acclaimed retelling of the legendary story of Livingstone and Stanley.

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