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Chargement... In the Footsteps of Stamford Rafflespar Nigel Barley
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Well written account of Stamford Raffles life. It alternated between narration as he, the author Nigel Barley, traveled to where Raffles went and accounts others wrote of him and even passages Raffles wrote himself. Barley keeps things light with his amusing way of describing some events. ( ) Nigel Barley writes a good book and this is no exception. Sir Stamford Raffles actually seems to be a decent man, a rare event not just in the nineteenth century but now. Barley does touch on the fact that Raffles is seen as a colonialist fascist by the Marxists of developing nations but I'm sort of glad he doesn't go further on that angle because, hey, who wants to read a neo-colonial Marxist treatise? The only drawback of this book is that Barley doesn't make Raffles come alive in the same way he makes the White Rajah James Brookes come alive in his biography of Brookes. Obviously Raffles is not as interesting a person as Brookes as while the Rajah was partaking in the rough trade in Totnes, Raffles was planting a garden in Belcoonen, Sumatra. And, considering the book is partly based in Sumatra I was disappointed by the absence of a reference to the Giant Rat of Sumatra. Quibbling aside, I still recommend this book (and all of Barley's tomes) to the interested reader. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
The founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, was born into genteel poverty in 1781 London before joining the East India Company at the age of 14 and working his way up to become Lieutenant Governor of Java (now in Indonesia). There he fell in love with all things Javanese and vaunted it as a place of civilisation as he discovered himself as a man of science as well as commerce. A humane and ever-curious figure, his administration was a period of energetic reform and boisterous research that culminated in his History of Java in 1817 and it remains the starting-point of all subsequent studies of Indonesian culture. Personal tragedy and ill-health stalked his final years in the East. Yet, though dying at the early age of 44 and dogged by the hostility of lesser men, he would still find time to found the city-state of Singapore and guide it through its first dangerous years. Here, mythologised by the British and demonised by the Dutch, he is more than a remote founding father and remains a charter for its independence and its enduring values. In this intriguing book, part history, part travelogue, Nigel Barley re-visits the places that were important in the life of Stamford Raffles and evaluates his heritage in an account that is both humorous and insightful. First published by Penguin, this book has been updated and reissued by Monsoon Books. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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