Daren
I bought this on the basis of good reviews and it sounding pretty interesting. Both proved out in what was a great book. Although not very clear from the blurb, this book is partly about one of many cities founded by Alexander the Great on his rampage around the world - he had a thing for naming cities after himself- thus Alexandria. The one in Egypt is the one which hung around. Most of the others (historian consider there were a dozen or so) fell to ruin or were overtaken by other cities. Most have not been discovered.
The Alexandria in this case was known as Alexandria under the Mountain, its re-discovery by Charles Masson, in Afghanistan, is the primary topic of this book. Or is it? This book resolves the question of who exactly Charles Masson is. The events of this book take place from 1827 to 1853. Events I learned about from Flashman (volume 1) and Dalrymple's Return of a King, amongst others.
I liked this quote from early on in the book, P2 of my edition. Given it is page 2, I am not giving anything away when I say Masson at this time was known as Lewis - his real name, Private James Lewis, and his 'walking away from Agra' was him deserting from the British East India Company Army.
As he left Agra behind, he had no way of knowing that he was walking into one of history's most incredible stories. He would beg by the roadside and take tea with kings. He would travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises. He would see things that no westerner had ever seen before, and few have glimpsed since. And, little by little, he would transform himself from an ordinary soldier into one of the greatest archeologists of the age. He would devote his life to a quest for Alexander the Great.
And so Edmund Richardson unpicks a complicated story, breathtaking in parts and heartbreaking in others, particularly the way Masson was manipulated by the British East India Company, and taken advantage of by others.
This really was excellent reading.
I also earmarked this quote, from right at the end: P258 of my edition.
How does history get written? Look closely and you will realise something important. Often it's not because of a professor sitting in a library, but because of someone like Masson: a strange and wonderful character fighting through the snows, chasing an impossible dream. Knowledge, as we hold it in our hands today, is formed not just from scholarship and experiments, facts and equations. It is also made of stories.
The reference to stories ties back in to some of Masson's experiences explained in the book.
I could write a load more, but will resist. Highly recommended if this is in your wheelhouse.
5 stars.
I bought this on the basis of good reviews and it sounding pretty interesting. Both proved out in what was a great book. Although not very clear from the blurb, this book is partly about one of many cities founded by Alexander the Great on his rampage around the world - he had a thing for naming cities after himself- thus Alexandria. The one in Egypt is the one which hung around. Most of the others (historian consider there were a dozen or so) fell to ruin or were overtaken by other cities. Most have not been discovered.
The Alexandria in this case was known as Alexandria under the Mountain, its re-discovery by Charles Masson, in Afghanistan, is the primary topic of this book. Or is it? This book resolves the question of who exactly Charles Masson is. The events of this book take place from 1827 to 1853. Events I learned about from Flashman (volume 1) and Dalrymple's Return of a King, amongst others.
I liked this quote from early on in the book, P2 of my edition. Given it is page 2, I am not giving anything away when I say Masson at this time was known as Lewis - his real name, Private James Lewis, and his 'walking away from Agra' was him deserting from the British East India Company Army.
As he left Agra behind, he had no way of knowing that he was walking into one of history's most incredible stories. He would beg by the roadside and take tea with kings. He would travel with holy men and become the master of a hundred disguises. He would see things that no westerner had ever seen before, and few have glimpsed since. And, little by little, he would transform himself from an ordinary soldier into one of the greatest archeologists of the age. He would devote his life to a quest for Alexander the Great.
And so Edmund Richardson unpicks a complicated story, breathtaking in parts and heartbreaking in others, particularly the way Masson was manipulated by the British East India Company, and taken advantage of by others.
This really was excellent reading.
I also earmarked this quote, from right at the end: P258 of my edition.
How does history get written? Look closely and you will realise something important. Often it's not because of a professor sitting in a library, but because of someone like Masson: a strange and wonderful character fighting through the snows, chasing an impossible dream. Knowledge, as we hold it in our hands today, is formed not just from scholarship and experiments, facts and equations. It is also made of stories.
The reference to stories ties back in to some of Masson's experiences explained in the book.
I could write a load more, but will resist. Highly recommended if this is in your wheelhouse.
5 stars.