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A review by rosemaryandrue
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard
adventurous
informative
tense
fast-paced
3.5
As European interest in Africa and its wealth of resources increased during the 19th century, so too did the number of ill-advised white men setting off to try and map its interior. And the greatest and most difficult of these missions was to definitively discover the source of the Nile river.
This is a story with two rather unbelievable leads, only one of whom I'd heard of and then very vaguely. A book can't go wrong following such screwed up, pompous individuals like Burton and Speke, especially when we get almost as a foil the wonderful Sidi Mubarak Bombay. I thought the author did a great job showing both the positive and negative qualities of Burton and Speke, and both the incredible feat of their explorations as well as how their imperialist and racist views both contributed to and clashed with all they did.
However, I did think the story got somewhat disjointed, weaving away to discuss such topics as Burton's marriage which while interesting felt like it served to pad the page count. Burton and Speke's various Nile expeditions were only a slice of their lives, and I think the author had trouble working out how closely she must cleave to that central story, and how much else of their lives she must leave out, which made for meandering reading at times.
This is a story with two rather unbelievable leads, only one of whom I'd heard of and then very vaguely. A book can't go wrong following such screwed up, pompous individuals like Burton and Speke, especially when we get almost as a foil the wonderful Sidi Mubarak Bombay. I thought the author did a great job showing both the positive and negative qualities of Burton and Speke, and both the incredible feat of their explorations as well as how their imperialist and racist views both contributed to and clashed with all they did.
However, I did think the story got somewhat disjointed, weaving away to discuss such topics as Burton's marriage which while interesting felt like it served to pad the page count. Burton and Speke's various Nile expeditions were only a slice of their lives, and I think the author had trouble working out how closely she must cleave to that central story, and how much else of their lives she must leave out, which made for meandering reading at times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Medical content, and Colonisation