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Summary: A classic tale of true adventure
Review: A Ride To Khiva: My Travels And Adventures In Central Asia 1875 is the personal memoir of soldier, traveler, writer, and pioneer balloonist Frederick Gustavus Burnaby, who died on January 17, 1885 at the age of 42 who was then a colonel in the British Army and speared to death in the Sudan along with 73 of his men. In 1875 Burnaby chose to personally investigate the rationale behind Russia's exclusion of foreigners in Central Asia. In the middle of winter Burnaby traveled by rail, carriage, sleigh, and horseback, while observing the people and their customs. A classic tale of true adventure, of struggling with language barriers, and of the determination to see one's task through, A Ride To Khiva is very highly recommended reading -- especially for enthusiasts of true adventure sagas.
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Summary: Truth is stranger than fiction
Review: Burnaby, a classic hero/adventurer type, was the 19th Century's Indiana Jones. His book, a popular sensation when first published in the mid 1800s, chronicles his exciting, dangerous, and sometimes humorous horseback and sleigh/carriage ride from southern Russia to Khiva, in what was then an independant khanate in Central Asia, in the middle of winter. If you like exciting, true adventure travel tales, you owe it to yourself to see this book. A standard by which all subsequent narratives should be measured
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Summary: A travel and adventure classic.
Review: South central Asia, the focus of the world's attention in 2003, received an earlier share of it in the 1870s. For centuries travelers' tales and the mention of such exotic names as Samarcand, Tashkent and Bokhara had aroused interest and fired imaginations. To all this was added rumor in 1875 that British interests in India were threatened by Russian expansionism. In particular, it was believed that Russian forces were massing in the recently occupied city of Khiva, nowadays in Uzbekistan, in preparation for an invasion of India. A situation like this fitted perfectly the kind of 'investigative reporting' adventures that Frederick Burnaby craved. In 1876, this 33-year-old captain in the British army took leave of absence, and set out for Khiva. The journey involved a ride of over one thousand miles in well below freezing conditions across steppes and wastelands. On his return, Burnaby wrote 'A Ride to Khiva' and it instantly became a best seller. A well-educated man, proficient in many languages, and a keen observer of all he encountered, his account still ranks as one of the great adventure classics of literature. I am grateful to the neighbor who lent me this book, and can report that reading it has provided many hours of fascination. Burnaby died ten years after writing this book, supposedly during a massacre in the Sudan. Keen Internet browsers might find reference to a recent revelation that throws doubt upon the truth of the official account of his death.
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Summary: A "Great Game" classic
Review: This is an exciting adventure book, writen in 1876 about the travels of a British Army Captain through Western Siberia into Khiva, a city in Central Asia recently taken by the Russian Empire. It purports to be just travel by an army man at liesure, and wanting to see parts of the world. Since we are in the "Great Game" era, when Britain and Russia were contending for the countries around India, I have the feeling that it was more than that, and that the author's mission was somewhat akin to "checking out the land" in the case of an impending conflict. Anyway, it's extremely well-written, and the descriptions of both the places and the people are first rate! The author obviously had a keen eye, and I would really love to read the report he actually submitted to his superiors in London when he returned. I'm sure it's still buried deeply in their secret files.
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