Troyanov, Iliya - The Collector of Worlds

The Collector of Worlds - a prize-winning bestseller in Germany - is a rare combination of literary achievement and popular storytelling.  The novel is a brilliant recreation of the extraordinary life of Sir Richard Burton, one of the most exotic figures of the Victorian age.  Burton was the first westerner to make the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, disguising himself as an Arab.  He discovered the source of the Nile with Speke, one of the epic journeys of nineteenth-century exploration.  His translation of the Arabian Nights scandalised his contemporaries because he refused to censor the erotic passages in the original text.  The Collector of Worlds is much more than a novelised history of this controversial and romantic figure: Iliya Troyanov gives a multi-faceted and tragicomic perspective on the character of a strange, brooding genius. 

Condition:  Good