Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
464K words
Chapters
47

Tags

English Originals Travel Human GeographyNatural HistoryGeographical SurveyExploration JourneyAfrican ExplorationAdventure SpiritTravel GuideDocumentary NarrativeExotic CultureCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, Volume 2 by BurtonAuthor: Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890,Language: English, Class: DT: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is Volume 2 of Sir Richard Francis Burton's Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo, a work of nineteenth-century African exploration and travel writing. Burton records his journeys, the geography, and local observations from a first-hand perspective; the prose bears the unmistakable stamp of its era and serves both as travel literature and as an important source for understanding how Africa was perceived at the time. Readers familiar with Burton's other works may read this volume in sequence with Volume 1; for newcomers, it works better as a sample of nineteenth-century exploration writing. Note that the book inevitably carries the observational perspective and expressive habits of the colonial era; read it with a historicizing, critical eye, distinguishing factual record from period prejudice. As a Project Gutenberg eBook, it is easy to search and to read alongside other texts, and rewards slow reading with a map at hand.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read Volume 1 first for a more coherent thread of the journey.
  2. Keep a map of the Congo region at hand to locate places as you read.
  3. Mark passages reflecting period prejudice and weigh them against historical sources.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Can this book be read on its own? Yes, but it is the second of two volumes, and the journey and narrative continue from Volume 1. Reading Volume 1 first gives a fuller understanding; reading this volume alone does not prevent grasping its content.
Does the book carry colonial-era prejudice? As nineteenth-century exploration writing, it carries the observational perspective and expressive habits of its time. Read it historically, distinguishing factual record from period prejudice, rather than taking it as objective description.
What language is this edition in? This is the original English edition, released by Project Gutenberg. No information on a Chinese translation is provided, so readers should have adequate English reading ability.

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About the author

Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890 Author

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890) was a British explorer, writer and Orientalist. This library holds fifteen of his works, spanning East African exploration, accounts of a pilgrimage across Arabia, Hindu myth and tales of Central African travel. First Footsteps in East Africa records his journey into the interior of East Africa; the two-volume Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah offers a first-hand portrait of the holy cities; and Vikram and the Vampire retells classic Hindu tales of adventure. His prose is detailed and precise, combining the calm of an observer with a storyteller's vividness, and has had a lasting influence on travel writing and Oriental studies. As public information is limited, this note is based chiefly on the works held here.