Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure - Hardcover

Jeal, Tim

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571249752 ISBN 13: 9780571249756

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2011

Synopsis

Between 1856 and 1876, five explorers, all British, took on the seemingly impossible task of discovering the source of the White Nile. Showing exceptional courage and extraordinary resilience, Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, Samuel Baker, David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley risked their lives and their reputations in the name of this quest. They journeyed through East and Central Africa into unmapped territory, discovered the great lakesTanganyika and Victoria, navigated the upper Nile and the Congo, and suffered the ravages of flesh-eating ulcers, malaria and deep spear wounds. Using new research, Tim Jeal tells the story of these great expeditions, while also examining the tragic consequences which the Nile search has had on Uganda and Sudan to this day. Explorers of the Nile is a gripping adventure story with an arresting analysis of Britain's imperial past and the Scramble for Africa.

About this title

Review:

A splendid account. --Bernard Porter, Guardian

A vivid tale of adventure . . . Tim Jeal's wonderful book is filled with anecdotes and brilliant cameos, which keep the narrative fresh and sparklingly alive. --Literary Review

'Tim Jeal's masterly book ... can safely supplant Alan Moorehead's 1960 classic, The White Nile ... Jeal also knows how to tell a fabulous story, and he lets old-fashioned epic adventure sit at the heart of his fine book.' --Sunday Times

'Tim Jeal's wonderfully entertaining and authoritative account of the search for the Nile and its consequences ... There is something intensely moving about the way in which Jeal has sought to restore Speke's reputation.' --John Preston, Sunday Telegraph

'Tim Jeal's gripping book pulls the whole astonishing story together. Many a red-blooded Spectator reader will relish it, and buy it, since it's as intricate and unexpected as the source of the river itself ... All the main players were British, all examples of grit, resourcefulness and courage on a heroic scale, each emerging in vibrant contrast ... How intimately Tim Jeal knows them all, and brings them back to life for us.' --Tom Stacey, The Spectator

'This engrossing book is a great feat, important not only for shedding fresh light on a tale of Victorian endeavour and pride but also for reminding us of the far-reaching consequences of European intrusion into the hear of Africa.' --Benedict Allen, Independent on Sunday

'Tim Jeal's masterly overview of the two key decades of exploration of the Central African lake district from 1856 onwards ... The complicated narrative is well told with exemplary scholarship and compelling lucidity ... One of the fascinations of Jeal's book and his account of this astonishing period of exploration is that it makes great efforts to strip away the accumulated myths and through this process we can begin to see these 'heroic' figures plain, to imagine them as they were to their contemporaries.' --William Boyd, TLS

'There are few greater stories than the race to the Nile's source ... Tim Jeal gives a fine reprise, bringing together in one well-paced narrative the interlocking Nilotic adventures ... its place [is] alongside the classics of Victorian explorer history.' --Tim Butcher, Daily Telegraph

'This brilliant book offers a new insight into the quest for the source of the Nile. Before imperialism ... men had more poetic and heroic motives for exploration ... There was an eccentric nobility in their exploits ... Jeal jolts us out of the standard stiff upper-lip routines ... [and] makes one wonder how any survived.' --Sinclair McKay, Mail on Sunday

'Tim Jeal's achievement in this colourful, fascinating book is to have found letters and previously uncollected papers which refute the accepted story. It may be too late to grant Speke a posthumous knighthood, but it must be heartwarming to his descendants to know the truth.' --Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

'Tim Jeal's splendid new account of the Europeans who braved the 'Dark Continent' ... Joseph Conrad called explorers of unknown landscapes 'conquerors of truth' because they wove heroic myths about themselves. No one has done more to dispel these myths than Tim Jeal.' --Piers Brendon, The Oldie

'Tim Jeal's achievement in this colourful, fascinating book is to have found letters and previously uncollected papers which refute the accepted story. It may be too late to grant Speke a posthumous knighthood, but it must be heartwarming to his descendants to know the truth.' --Christopher Hudson, Daily Mail

'Tim Jeal's splendid new account of the Europeans who braved the 'Dark Continent' ... Joseph Conrad called explorers of unknown landscapes 'conquerors of truth' because they wove heroic myths about themselves. No one has done more to dispel these myths than Tim Jeal.' --Piers Brendon, The Oldie

Book Description:

Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure, from Tim Jeal - author of the bestselling Stanley - is the epic Victorian story of the search for the source of the Nile.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0571249752
• ISBN 13: 9780571249756
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 528