Dr. David Livingstone, the Victorian 'missionary-explorer', has attracted more written commentary than nearly any other heroic figure of the nineteenth century. In the years following his death, as numerous biographers took up the pen, he rapidly became the subject of a major biographical tradition. Even today, new volumes and new perspectives continue to be produced with regularity. Yet out of this extensive discourse, no single or unified image of Livingstone emerges. Rather, he has been represented in diverse ways and put to work in a variety of socio-political contexts.

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