A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton
By: Mary Lovell

Sir Richard Burton has lived easily one of the most fascinating lives ever–several times during the reading of this biography you’ll stop and wonder if this is all just fiction. No life could ever be this full, you’ll think…

The book opens with Burton’s early life in various locations around Europe. Following this is a chronicle of his time as a young soldier in India and growth into one of the leading Orientalists of his time.

Two of the explorer’s main adventures are dealt with at length. The first, his pilgrimage to Mecca which placed him in the position of being the first European to make the pilgrimage in disguise as an Arab- a disguise totally believed by his fellow Muslim travelers. The recounting of this adventure is fascinating, especially at its climax with Burton hauled into the sacred Ka’baa.The second major adventure was his expedition into the heart of Africa to find the source of the Nile. This part of the biography deals with the trials, countless fevers, fights and hardships and his subsequent battle for glory with his fellow explorer John Speke.

But before I get carried away talking exclusively about Burton, I should note that this is also a biography about Isabel, his devoted wife. A fascinating picture is drawn of her: she is essentially a rich noble who ran into Burton by chance fell in love at first sight, and later followed his growing fame with interest. After being told by a Gypsy that she would one day marry someone by the name Burton, she settled on him in her mind. This book follows her transformation from aristocratic lady to an adventurer seized with the same wanderlust as Richard, to a literary figure in her own right.

Details of Burton’s almost unbelievable talents, knack for fooling natives and many, many loves are chronicled meticulously. The man spoke over twenty languages and dialects, became a Hajji (after his pilgrimage), discovered a lost city, was given the sacred thread of a Hindu Brahmin, became a master Sufi, a master fencer, and was eventually knighted for his achievements.

Adventure follows adventure and the book traces the parallel growth of Richard and Isabel’s literary and physical journeys. Burton’s own writings were numerous, and this biography give the state of
mind he was in during their writings. It also portrays Isabel as a near intellectual equal and as a complementary companion, making the couple a formidable force in the 19th century.

Some of Burton’s most famous works include the translations of the 3 famed sexual masterpieces: The Kama Sutra, The Ananga Ranga, and The Perfumed Garden. This biography describes these works and the real story of Burton’s final work, an exhaustive version of The Perfumed Garden called The Scented Garden. Shortly after Richard’s death, Isabel burned the manuscript and several other papers, an act which condemned her to the outrage of antiquarians and Burton biographers then, and even to the present day. This biography however, puts the burning in a different light, absolving Isabel from any unjust motives.

Burton is perhaps most beloved today by those who have read his unexpurgated translation of the Thousand Nights and a Night, the great granddaddy of them all. Forget whatever wimpy children’s versions of the Arabian Nights you have read, this is the real deal, over 3500 pages in sixteen volumes. (Literally 1001 nights given as chapters, over 300 pages of poetry, hundreds of pages of footnotes-some of the most fascinating anthropological facts I have ever read, Burton’s various skews and prejudices, and of course, the famous Terminal Essay previously suppressed for its content). In it you’ll find all the original explicit sex, flowery couplets and theocratic/cultural Islam. (The next time you watch Disney’s Aladdin, you will barf in mirth). This bio details the publishing history which culminated in this masterwork of translation.

The only possible con is that some might feel the author took an entirely too positive view of the famous couple, glossing over Isabel’s motives in the document burning and tending to glorify Richard’s strengths over his character flaws. But putting this aside, the biography has enough depth and style to be both fascinating and informative.

As an aside to my fellow book lovers: if you are a fan of fiction, you owe it to yourself to read a full version of the Nights. It is the fount of nearly all subsequent storytelling, and its scope makes it the bible of all fiction. Every archetype is created, and every human and supernatural scenario has its roots somewhere in it. If you read 10 pages a day you could finish Burton’s version in about a year, and be much wiser for your trouble.

The curious can download the full text versions at project Gutenberg

(images from www.johncoulthart.com)

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