OLLI0165 - Sir Richard Francis Burton: The Most Fascinating Man of The 19th Century

Course Description

Richard Francis Burton was one of the most famous explorers of the 19th century gaining initial recognition for his dangerous pilgrimage in 1853 to the Great Mosque at Mecca disguised as a Muslim. His fame and notoriety increased as he tenaciously pursued the source of the Nile River in East Africa in the 1850s. As a British consul in West Africa, Brazil, Syria, and Trieste from 1861 to 1890, he edited and translated numerous works from Portuguese, German, Arabic, and Sanskrit. One of the greatest linguists of his century, Burton gained even greater notoriety in the 1880s translating and publishing uncensored editions of the Arabian Nights (11 volumes), the Kama Sutra, and a major Arab treatise on homosexuality. In this class, we will look at five of the principal chapters in Burton’s life: his pilgrimage to Mecca, the search for the source of the Nile, his travels in Brazil, and his life as the translator of the exotic East and human sexuality. This course will be recorded.