Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer | 
|  | | | Title: | Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer | | Author: | Tim Jeal | | Publisher: | Yale University Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 28 October, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0300142234 / 9780300142235 | | List Price: | $18.00 | | You Save: | $5.76 | | Amazon Price: | $12.24 | |
 This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $11.41. |
The HTML code below can be pasted onto your web-site, your MySpace page, or blog - or any number of similar places - to create a link to this page: If, instead of a text link, you'd like to create a link to this page which will display the book cover, if it's available, then the code below will do exactly that:
Check for the same book at these other US book sites:
• [ Abebooks ] • [ Alibris ] • [ Barnes & Noble ] • [ Half.com ] • [ Powells ] … or check UK bookstores
| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
"A magnificent new life . . . [and] a superb adventure story. . . . There have been many biographies of Stanley, but Jeal's is the most felicitous, the best informed, the most complete and readable and exhaustive, profiting from his access to an immense new trove of Stanley material." -- Paul Theroux, front page, New York Times Book Review Henry Morton Stanley, so the tale goes, was a cruel imperialist who connived with King Leopold II of Belgium in horrific crimes against the people of the Congo. He also conducted the most legendary celebrity interview in history, opening with, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”  But these perceptions are not quite true, Tim Jeal shows in this grand and colorful biography. With unprecedented access to previously closed Stanley family archives, Jeal reveals the amazing extent to which Stanley’s public career and intimate life have been misunderstood and undervalued. Jeal recovers the reality of Stanley’s life—a life of almost impossible extremes—in this moving story of tragedy, adventure, disappointment, and success.  Few have started life as disadvantaged as Stanley. Rejected by both parents and consigned to a Welsh workhouse, he emigrated to America as a penniless eighteen-year-old. Jeal vividly re-creates Stanley’s rise to success, his friendships and romantic relationships, and his life-changing decision to assume an American identity. Stanley’s epic but unfairly forgotten African journeys are thrillingly described, establishing the explorer as the greatest to set foot on the continent. Few biographies can claim so thoroughly to reappraise a reputation; few portray a more extraordinary historical figure. Â
| Other Items You May Enjoy:
Browse Books From These Related Subjects:
Customer Reviews:
• A Different H.m. Stanley 16 December, 2008
Tim Jeal goes against the grain with this account of the incredible life of African explorer Henry Morton Stanley. For the last 140 years or so history has largely condemned Africa's greatest explorer for his cruelty and difficult personality. Jeal, apparently having access to documents previous biographers have not, makes a compelling argument which reveals Stanley as a softer, more egalitarian explorer than his counterparts, who unfortunately, through misguided exaggerations in his own published writings and other unfortunate events (stemming from the day he was born), lead to the widely held views that we have today.
This book, if closer to the truth than all those before it, turns the myth of Africa's greatest explorer on it's head.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2983SO65DD0PH
• Stanley's Sad And Glorious Life 14 July, 2008
Jeal's wonderful biography of Stanley succeeds on many levels, as biography, history, psychology, cultural analysis and literature. The book brings to life his three great African journeys that made him famous but also captures the other parts of his life: his humble upbringing in Wales, his time in America and his later years in England. Stanley was a complicated man and, after reading the book, I felt I understood him.
The book also provides a good picture of Victorian England and the politics of the European powers towards Africa in the late nineteenth century. His book also reflects on the subsequent developments in Africa that color how we now look at the exploration and colonization of Africa.
Jeal was provided access to a vast trove of Stanley's writings that were previously unavailable. A fascinating part of this book is to see how new information, combined with a writer's keen analysis, can completely upend the standard view of a person or historical event.
All in all, a thoroughly interesting book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3PF7KLW2ILCY2
• Maybe A Little Too Much Detail 26 November, 2008
The problem with this book is that it's 475 pages long. If you're gonna read a 475-page book it better be about something you're awfully interested in, and I was only marginally interested in Stanley. The research I've done indicates that this is the definitive book about him, which is great and all, but I didn't really need a definitive book about him; a 300-page summary would've done fine.
I'm realizing that 300 is the right number of pages for me. After that I start to feel like I'm working.
In addition, I find Jeal's take on Stanley overly apologetic. I get it, he wasn't quite as bad as everyone makes him out to be, but that doesn't mean he was a totally righteous dude; Jeal goes too far sometimes.
Jeal's a good writer though, easy to read, so for a 475-page book it did move pretty quickly.
I wouldn't call this required reading unless you're a serious Stanley buff.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ASKZ82L9OE9RU
• One Of History's Misunderstood Characters 29 August, 2008
This book tells the story of one of history's most misunderstood and mischaracterized individuals. Henry Stanley rose from poverty to become one of the world's most effective but least known explorers, uncovering central Africa's mysteries and unwittingly creating the groundwork for the rape and bondage of a continent. From the famous but never-uttered "Dr. Livingston, I presume," to the reduced public stature resulting from the self-serving detrimental statements of others, Stanley emerges as a complex man worthy of a better and truer place in history than he accomplished. In addition to the personal tale, this book opens to the reader the state of 19th century Africa and is worth reading if only from this perspective.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1BJLHVT32LUK2
• An Outstanding Biography, I Presume! 14 November, 2008
This is well written and well research biography. Captures the cultural and personal elements of Stanley's life. One experiences the details and struggles of Stanley's explorations in Africa as well as the range of his personal and romantic relationships. Both honest and fair in assessing Stanley's strengths & weaknesses. One unfortunate flaw: there are no maps to clarify the routes of Stanley's explorations.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AEYX51PM1MU71
|
