Biography
British adventurer, explorer, writer and scholar of Islamic writings
and languages. He traveled Europe, Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa, exploring
the source of the Nile and writing books of his adventures. His famous
translation of "Arabian Nights" is a classic. He was an officer
in the Bombay army of the British East India Company and many of his
travels were underwritten by the Royal Geographic Society, plus he spent
the better part of his career as a British consul under the auspices of
the British Foreign Office. In each of the segments of his life, he was
viewed as a difficult character, which he most assuredly was, and he never
missed an opportunity to show his contempt for those in superior positions
to him.
Burton spoke 29 languages. He converted to Hinduism, then Islam and,
disguised, entered forbidden and inaccessible places. He consumed opium
and hashish, and sampled every available woman and brothel east of Suez.
His translations of Eastern erotica and his blunt approach to sexual
descriptions shocked Victorian England to the core, yet remained
masterpieces of literature. Eventually, Burton's translations filled 70
volumes.
He was the first non-Muslim to make a successful pilgrimage to Mecca,
posing as one of the faithful, and the first to penetrate the ancient
kingdom of Harar in Somalia. He was the first Westerner to discover Lake
Tanganyika, in his attempt to find the source of the Nile. He served as a
spy in peacetime India and as an officer in the Crimean War. He prospected
for gold in Egypt, West Africa and Brazil. He wrote what is thought to be
the best book on sword fighting of the nineteenth century. He introduced
the word "safari" into the English language and is said to have
introduced Turkish delight to Europe. He was one of the earliest
translators of the "Kama Sutra" and "Arabian Nights,"
and he wrote poems in the manner of the classics of Arabic literature. So
exceptional a man that a plethora of books have been written about him,
yet Burton remains beyond the range of ordinary definition.
Burton grew up mainly in France and Italy. In 1822, his dad had been
required to stand down from military service at half-pay, allegedly
because he refused to testify against Queen Caroline, the cast-off wife of
King George IV, who was accused of scandalous behavior in Italy. Joseph
Burton took his family abroad where they lived on the income from his
father-in-law's estate. Though young Richard missed a British education,
he was an intellectual prodigy, able to play – and beat – four chess
opponents simultaneously. When he finally went to Trinity college in
England, he lasted only five terms, dismissed for attending a steeplechase
race against regulations. He always seemed an outsider, as he himself
wrote, "A blaze of light without a focus."
His aptitude for acquiring new languages was astonishing and in some
cases, self-taught. He was also said to be the best horseman and the
finest swordsman in the British military.
Hardly a desirable catch, at 40 Burton earned little money and had poor
prospects. He had a reputation for being an unstable and a rather
off-color fellow. His normally fierce look was made more so by a scar from
a Berber spear that had cut through one cheek into his mouth. This did not
stop 29-year-old Isabel Arundell, the daughter of an aristocratic Catholic
family, from falling hopelessly in love with him from the time they first
met in 1851. Five years passed before they were secretly engaged and
another five before she went against her parents wishes and eloped to
London with Burton.
His marriage to Lady Isabel was undoubtedly one of lifelong passion and
devotion, though he continued his intellectual and sexual adventures
through the periods when they were apart.
Burton died on 10/20/1890, Trieste, Austria-Hungary.
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