The Intriguing Life and Ignominious Death of Maurice Benyovszky

ISBN-13: 9781412865104 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 288 str.

Andrew Drummond

Opis

Tales of exploration and adventure were wildly popular in the 18th century. When Maurice Benyovszky's -authentic- posthumous memoir was published in 1790, it was an instant sensation, and was translated into several languages and adapted for the theater and opera. With tales of daring escapes from Siberian prisons, of epic victories of 33 men overcoming 3,000 angry natives, and of being crowned King of Madagascar, who could not be caught up in Benyovszky-mania? The self-identified -Hungarian Baron Maurice Auguste Aladar Benyofszky, Counsellor to Prince Albert, Duke of Saxony, Colonel (in the service) of her Apostolic Royal Imperial Majesty, the Queen of Hungary, and officer of a regiment of the confederation of the republic of Poland- was, in fact, only confirmed to be an officer in a regiment. The truth is that while he did escape from Russian captors and visited Japan, Formosa, China, and Madagascar, many of the details were simply bogus or wildly exaggerated. Regardless, these stories still entertain and instruct us about a world that was still shiny and new, leading us deep into the psyche of the European and Russian explorers of this time. With a light, engaging, and farcical wit, Andrew Drummond tells a more accurate version of events by compiling other statements from Benyovszky's travelling companions and skeptical officials as well as documents from the places he claims to have visited. Drummond reveals the truths behind such intriguing tales--that early explorers were astonishingly unprepared and that colonization was often more horrific than adventurous.

O autorze

Andrew Drummond is based in Edinburgh, UK. He holds a degree in Modern Languages from Aberdeen University and a post-graduate degree in German Studies from King’s College, London. His publications include An Abridged History (2004), A Hand-book of Volapük (2006), Elephantina (2008) and Novgorod the Great (2010), the first of which was short-listed for the Saltire Society’s First Book of the Year award, and he has recently had several short stories published in anthologies.