Richard Francis Burton was born in Torquay
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 2:18 pm
ON THE GREAT STAGE OF HISTORY there have always been individuals not of the common run who know how to make their lives into a work of art, refined yet barbarian, defying time and imagination. The American historian Fawn Brodie (1915-1981) retraces here the destiny of one of them, the Irishman Richard Francis Burton, with erudition and precision, combined with a superb narrative skill.
The subject of the book himself harbours such a diversity of character traits that it is hard to believe that they could all have belonged to one and the same person. It is to Fawn Brodie's credit that she has tried to penetrate the mystery of this fascinating character without falling into Freudian simplifications or any other kind of prejudice for that matter.
in 1821 of an Anglo-Irish father, lieutenant-colonel, and a phone number list mother of Scottish descent, an ancestry which probably accounts for his adventurous and untamed temperament. His education and his upbringing was irregular, his family often moving house. Most of his youth was spent in France and Italy. His eventful childhood stimulated his tendency towards adventure and freedom and also gave him the opportunity to develop his natural bent for languages at an early age. In the course of his life Burton came to master some forty languages.
His father entered him at Trinity College Oxford, where he stayed for two years, in which time he learned Arabic without a teacher and was remarked upon for his eccentricities and rejection of convention. His wild, sometimes dark character, led him while he was up at Oxford, into a number of duels in which he displayed redoubtable skills of swordsmanship.
The subject of the book himself harbours such a diversity of character traits that it is hard to believe that they could all have belonged to one and the same person. It is to Fawn Brodie's credit that she has tried to penetrate the mystery of this fascinating character without falling into Freudian simplifications or any other kind of prejudice for that matter.
in 1821 of an Anglo-Irish father, lieutenant-colonel, and a phone number list mother of Scottish descent, an ancestry which probably accounts for his adventurous and untamed temperament. His education and his upbringing was irregular, his family often moving house. Most of his youth was spent in France and Italy. His eventful childhood stimulated his tendency towards adventure and freedom and also gave him the opportunity to develop his natural bent for languages at an early age. In the course of his life Burton came to master some forty languages.
His father entered him at Trinity College Oxford, where he stayed for two years, in which time he learned Arabic without a teacher and was remarked upon for his eccentricities and rejection of convention. His wild, sometimes dark character, led him while he was up at Oxford, into a number of duels in which he displayed redoubtable skills of swordsmanship.