IMPERIAL VANITIES - Couverture souple

Thompson, Brian

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0006532217 ISBN 13 : 9780006532217

Editeur : HarperCollins, 2010

Synopsis

‘A Victorian drama of three intertwined lives set against a backcloth of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. By degrees heroic, poignant, whimsical and tragic, Brian Thompson’s wonderful book is precisely what that much-misused cliché “rattling good yarn” might have been coined to describe.’ RICHARD HOLMES

'Victorian Britain, that seemingly most conformist of ages, was in fact teeming with eccentrics. The fabulous Baker Brothers were eccentric in a conformist way for the time: Sir Samuel searched for the source of the Nile; Baker Pasha became leader of the Ottoman army. But it was that epitome of empire, and epitome of the Christian English gentleman, who was the most peculiar of them all: 'Chinese' Gordon is finally depicted as the anarchist he really was as he marched to his death against the Mahdi. It is Thompson's triumph that he gives these characters, straitjacketed first by their time, and then by history, the freedom to dance across the page once more.' JUDITH FLANDERS

Imperial Vanities is an adventure story in the high tradition, ranging from the Upper Nile, to Ceylon, Egypt and the slave markets of the Balkans. Livingstone, Speke and Burton also make an appearance, with the shadowy and elusive Laurence Oliphant spying from the sidelines. Written with Thompson's masterly touch, this is history at its best.

'A tale of Empire at its most eccentric. Part biography, part history, part adventure yarn, Imperial Vanities is an ingeniously enjoyable read.' Fergus Fleming

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Brian Thompson was born in London and read English at Cambridge. He has written for radio and television, as well as for stage. His work of non-fiction includes ‘A Monkey Among Crocodiles’ and ‘Imperial Vanities’. He lives in Oxford and France.

Brian Thompson is the most hilariously funny and innovative voice in non-fiction for ages.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: HarperCollins
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0006532217
• ISBN 13: 9780006532217
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 312
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Silvia Ruiz Crespo; silviaruizcrespo3@icloud.com; a11.cyberbull@gmail.com; ; Calle otamendi; Madrid; Madrid; 28039; Espagne