The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton by Fawn M. Brodie. W. W. Norton and Company, $6.95.
Stereotypes are treacherous: they usually contain just enough truth to obscure the truth. The misleading cliché which turns so many Victorians into smug, inhibited, self-deluding hypocrites confirms our superiority at the expense of our insight. Even the more limited stereotype which shapes our view of Sir Richard Burton—the stereotype of the Victorian as explorer and adventurer—does us no service. We remember Burton as a British officer, disguised pilgrim, and amateur translator; we associate him with empire, the white man’s burden, and strenuous superficiality.
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