Stanley The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer

The tragic life of the most brilliant adventurer in the great age of exploration. Henry Morton Stanley was a cruel imperialist - a bad man of Africa - who connived with King Leopold II of Belgium in horrific crimes against the people of the Congo. He also conducted the most legendary celebrity interview in history, remembered in the words 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' Or so we think; but as Tim Jeal brilliantly shows, none of these perceptions is quite true. The reality of Stanley's life - even by the exceptional standards of the Victorian age - is yet more extraordinary. Rejected by both parents at birth and consigned to a Welsh workhouse, he emigrated to America, fought in the Civil War - on both sides - before becoming a journalist and then an explorer. Few people know of his dazzling trans-Africa journey, which solved virtually every one of the continent's remaining geographical puzzles. His journey down the Congo to the Atlantic is a heart-breaking epic of human endurance. It alone qualifies him as Africa’s greatest explorer. Now, abundant new documentary evidence allows Jeal to show just how misunderstood Stanley's life has been. In doing so, he also provides a timely re-examination of post-colonial guilt, new insights into African history, and a fresh understanding of the nature of exploration. Few biographies can claim so thoroughly to reappraise a reputation, or to be as moving, or as truly majestic.