Stanley by Tim Jeal

Stanley by Tim Jeal

A rousing biography of the most brilliant, and misunderstood, adventurer in the great age of exploration--winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2007

Magnificent new life . . . . There have been many biographies of Stanley, but Jeal's is the most felicitous, the best informed, the most complete and readable and exhaustive.--Paul Theroux, front page, New York Times Book Review

This commanding, definitive biography . . . is an unalloyed triumph.--Jason Roberts, Washington Post Book World

Henry Morton Stanley, so the tale goes, was a cruel imperialist who connived with King Leopold I 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.

Tim Jeal is also the biographer of Henry Morton Stanley (National Book Critics' Circle Award in Biography and Sunday Times Biography of the Year 2007), and Robert Baden-Powell, which (like Livingstone) was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. In 2011 his Explorers of the Nile was a New York Times Editor's Choice and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

SKU	CIN0300126255A
ISBN 13	9780300126259
ISBN 10	0300126255
Title	Stanley
Author	Tim Jeal
Condition	Well Read
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Yale University Press
Year published	2007-09-28
Number of pages	570
Prizes	Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography) 2007, Commended for L.A. Times Book Prize (Biography) 2007, Commended for Independent Publisher Book Awards (Biography) 2008
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	This is a used book. We do our best to provide good quality books for you to read, but there is no escaping the fact that it has been owned and read by someone else previously. Therefore it will show signs of wear and may be an ex library book